Thiago transfer update: It's still happening

If you were reading the story on Thiago's move to Manchester United from last night on the site, where we talked about reports of his wages being agreed, you may have nipped down to the comments section. There, you will find a selection of sources all backing up the original story, as everybody seems to believe the deal is on.

Tonight, The Mirror go to press with this, claiming Thiago's signing is more or less a certainty. But wait! Is everything, in fact, not coming up Milhouse? The ever-reliable party poopers The Guardian say it isn't, and their story on Thiago from earlier today makes the deal sound far less certain. Not likely, even. Well, personally, I'm not siding with the Guardian here. They're a lone voice in the crowd, and haven't got a good record on this sort of thing in recent years.

This isn't just a Manchester United blog, this is also somewhere where you can get life advice. Here's one piece: never, ever trust anyone who self-identifies as a "skeptic." The Guardian's full of them, but transfer rumour types are the worst for this. The sources were beginning to converge last night, and now the Mirror go to press with claiming that the deal is pretty much done. The Guardian disagree, but we disagree with them, for reasons explained herein. People who insist all rumours are fabricated on Football Manager forums and the 606 messageboards, only to be callously reprinted without any backup whatsoever by national newspapers.

These are people who say silly things like "but where are the quotes!" and "oh, so what's your source then?" I assume we don't need to discuss why those are daft things to say, but oddly you never see these people dismiss newspaper reports when they say that a big signing *won't* take place. A lot of people have accepted this Guardian story without caveat, and frankly, it's a bit difficult to see that there's a lot backing it up. There's not any new information in there whatsoever. It reads like it was written months ago.

So, that's where we are. Lots of people think it's very close. One person doesn't. Make your own mind up.