Alex Scott £100m January Report Passes Through Six Outlets And Gains One Adjective

A Tottenham householder has read the same report on Alex Scott six times since seven o'clock, and can confirm that nothing in it has changed except the tone.

The report states that Bournemouth are open to proposals for the midfielder in January, but are likely to entertain only bids in the region of £100m. It is credited to Fabrizio Romano. Chelsea and Liverpool are named as the two clubs leading the race. Spurs, it adds, will not be getting involved.

The Herald followed the story through six outlets. At the first, Bournemouth were open to proposals. At the third they had taken a firm stance. By the sixth they were braced for an auction, a phrase that appears nowhere in the original.

It said a hundred million at the first one and it said a hundred million at the sixth. They've just got more confident about it.

Our correspondent examined all six for new information and found none. Each carried the fee, the January window, the two clubs and the line about Spurs. Two used a photograph of the player. One used the same photograph, cropped.

Every outlet also credited the story to another outlet, which credited it to the original, a chain the householder described as very well sourced on the strength of its length.

By the fifth reading a second pot of tea had been made. No one in the household has any intention of bidding £100m, and the story says as much in its final paragraph, which the householder has read aloud on each occasion.

I keep thinking the next one will say something.

He is now on site seven.