Arsenal: The Sun Thomas Lemar reports fly in the face of reality

The Sun are continuing to report that Arsenal are making progress in their pursuit of Thomas Lemar. Such reports, though, fly in the face of reality, especially after Monaco Vice-President Vadim Vasilyev publicly revealed that Lemar will be staying at the French club.

Such is the madness and murkiness of the modern transfer world, that it is often difficult to wade through the mire of unfounded, misguided rubbish, that is simply conjured up to make fans, often Arsenal fans, optimistic about the prospects of their club for the coming season.

It is, unfortunately, par for the course. And being someone who has the pleasure and honour to work in the industry, I tend to have a nose for the accurate stories and am able to weed out those that have little relation to the truth.

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This brings me to The Sun’s recent coverage of Arsenal’s potential move for Thomas Lemar. To put into context, these are confirmed and validated comments from Monaco Vice-President Vadim Vasilyev regarding the French club’s stance that Lemar will not be leaving this summer:

"“We have kept all of the key players that we intended to keep,’ he said at a press conference. I will address speculation relating to the case of Lemar. He is staying with us. He is an immense talent and is essential for the team.”"

That seems fairly conclusive, would you not think? Well, not according to The Sun, who have very different ideas.

This report was published on Friday, July 21st. It states that the North London outfit are growing increasingly confident that they can secure a deal for Lemar. That is not an especially groundbreaking report. It has been mentioned by many news outlets throughout the summer and is most likely accurate.

However, it is their follow-up report, published on the morning of Thursday, 21st July that is especially infuriating. In this piece, The Sun claim that Arsenal are ‘on the brink of landing <…> Thomas Lemar in £45 million deal.’ This report comes a day after Vasilyev’s fairly concrete comments that Lemar will be staying at the French club.

Now, perhaps I am doing them a disservice and negating their assumed detective work in digging out a story. However, no other news outlet seems to corroborate their story, the public comments of Vasilyev counter their claims, and their reputation is not exactly one of a reputable and accurate news source.

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The Sun’s reporting of the Gunners’ pursuit of Lemar is extremely difficult to believe. It flies in the face of reality and only proceeds to enhance the reputation that they have garnered as an unreliable, untrustworthy newspaper, one that I have very little respect for indeed, for many reasons more substantial and important than a misguided transfer story.

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