Latest Kieran Trippier update shows just how much people are clutching at straws this month

The last few days have been a whirlwind of rumours with the main one being that Kieran Trippier is close to a move to Bayern Munich.

Indeed, yesterday it had been reported that Trippier had flown home from New York to push through the move.

However, since Craig Hope posted that update on X yesterday he's clearly heard another rumour and now Trippier doesn't want to leave and the move won't happen.

January has been a dry old month for NUFC journos

It has been a bad month for journalists covering Newcastle United with so little transfer activity to write about, so now any little crumb of information, any tiny little rumour is being blown up into a full story.

The fact that this is now Craig Hope's third or even fourth different version of events is proof of that fact.

If he actually knew what was going on he'd have one main thread running through each update, but beyond the player and the buying club, every other detail has changed as the story progresses.

Unsubstantiated rumours are all part of the fun

There could still be some truth to the Bayern links, of course, and we're not digging at Craig Hope here, he's got a job to do and in my opinion, he does it very well, but what this should highlight is just how little those outside of the club actually know of what's going on behind closed doors.

Getting excited about transfers is part of what makes football so exciting, and when it's a possible player exit that generates a different type of excitement, it's all part and parcel of our beautiful game, but we have to keep our heads on right and realise that until we see proof, i.e. a player turning up at their new club, then it's all just talk designed to generate interaction.

Honestly - we wouldn't change it.