There was a time – and you may not remember this, so removed from the present era does it seem – when stories regarding transfer speculation in football were considered beneath many newspapers and journalists. These stories were left to the tabloids, who would drive sales with exclusives, which included transfer exclusives. They understood they were tapping into a human need and drawing a distinction in this, as in many areas of life, between what the public were interested in and any loftier notions of journalism, including the public interest. Transfer stories now are not just a subculture within global…

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