France has been the source of more transfer rumours this summer than ever before, with several major national outlets competing against each other for prominence.
That means that whilst there’s more quantity there’s been inevitably less quality and a string of contradictions along the way. Much like what happened with Spain’s transfer rumour arms race, it leads to journalists being under pressure to come out with attention grabbing claims.
SFR have a new transfer programme and inevitably it’s full of big claims, with Jose Mourinho wanting Riyad Mahrez being one of them.
To avoid killing the rumour completely, the French programme then states the transfer could ‘sort itself out in the next few days, but the tendency is leaning towards Mahrez staying at Leicester an extra year.’
Manchester United’s end of window had been short on excitement and now, real or not, Mahrez is being dangled.