On November 30th, Spain’s El Gol Digital reported Leeds United interest in Andrés Guardado.
El Gol aren’t exactly the most reliable in Spain, far from it, but it was the way they reported it which caught the eye. Guardado would be leaving Betis, or thinking about it, for the ‘gold’ of the Premier League.
For now, let’s ignore Leeds aren’t a Premier League team and nor do they look nailed on to become one.
Leeds United were said to be prepared to offer €6m for the Mexican, and it was left like that. All about the money.
Perhaps El Gol didn’t think the story had the desired impact, that it didn’t spread widely enough quickly enough, because the very next day they published a new story.
Well, we say ‘new story’ but actually mean the very same story, word for word, but with a different headline.
This time there was no Premier League or gold, but a claim Betis could open the case to send the star to Leeds United.
And yet, still, it didn’t spread. Sure, it was picked up in England by the excellent Leeds United hawks, but that was it.
There’s no fuss in Spain and no fuss in Mexico. That’s odd, because the Seville sport media is huge, with a daily newspaper largely dedicated to Sevilla and Betis, and big sections in others, they’re big clubs and the area has a huge appetite for football stories.
Mexico is similar but on a country scale, there’s several daily sport newspapers and from experience we know they’ll happily pick up anything from Europe and turn it into something huge.
On Tuesday, Estadio Deportivo, the Seville sport newspaper, had a big feature on possible January transfers, and a Guardado exit didn’t even get a mention, never mind Leeds United.
Despite a string of English articles since, it’s all based on the above from El Gol, which, even in the rumour mill, was a frankly odd pushing of a story.
Perhaps Guardado wants a pay rise, perhaps his agents are putting the idea of a money motivated exit out there to pressure Betis… whatever it is… it’s not working yet.
