Last weekend, a small but significant part of Manchester United’s online fanbase got themselves extremely excited by a new Instagram Story posted by their on-off transfer target, the Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho.
Over recent years, the increasingly feverish fetishisation of transfer gossip has been mirrored in the growth of an army of amateur online detectives who scour the social media posts of footballers – and often their partners and families – for even the vaguest hint they may be on the move. Planes are tracked across the North Sea. Isn’t that row of elms the same as the one outside Arsenal’s training ground? If I’m not mistaken, that broken grit box is from the A560, which is how you’d get from Manchester airport to Carrington if the M56 is gridlocked. And so on.
Here,
Sancho had posted a picture of himself standing outside a park. But which park? Zoom right into the background, and tied to the park gates you’ll see a laminated notice bearing the logo of a local council. Zoom in even further, and it looks uncannily similar to the logo of Tower Hamlets. Stop the presses: Sancho is in London! Where United have an office! He’s signing! Maybe even in time for the Crystal Palace game next weekend!