Some of you out there will remember a time when we couldn’t easily access all the news in the world from our tiny mobile devices. Back in the day, the only way people could access information was the trusty TV, radio and newspapers. Now, we’re awash with information.

Something your friend’s uncle’s cousin who lives down the street has said can be suddenly thrown up online and reported as genuine news. So what? Well, at times, fabrication and rumours get jumped on and become merged as the truth, especially given the general public’s insatiable demand for breaking news every time we open up the internet.

None of this is more true than with football transfer rumours. At times, actual journalists working for publications such as The Chronicle get criticism for not reporting everything first, but there are reasons.

Whilst everyone wants to get a sniff of the latest potential signing, it is increasingly difficult to know what’s real and fake. As a fan site, all sorts of rumours will pass us by and it can be difficult to know what is genuine and what is nonsense.

Although we want to pass on everything, it has to at least be plausible.

Remember the Andros Townsend to Sporting Lisbon story? That was a hoax started on a Sunderland fan’s message board. But, with everyone trying to outdo each other for an exclusive, fact-checking can disappear. All over Facebook and Twitter are supposed “In The Know” accounts. These people claim to have all of the knowledge before they break news and will claim they got their first. Now, we don’t want to pick out accounts, but some are more known to us than others and should be disregarded even though they often seem utterly convincing at face value.

Look a little closer and you’ll notice familiar patterns:

1 – They hide behind fake names and never have a photo of themselves. Real local journalists are contactable and accountable for what they publish.

2 – They always have a “source.” Now, let’s think about this. If a footballer is going to suddenly break a transfer record, certain aspects have to be kept private. Why would an agent leak something to someone who doesn’t write for a genuine publication?

3 – Genuine publications have links in clubs for a variety of reasons, such as accessing interviews, improving the club’s public image and the bonds they form with staff over time.

4 – A faceless ITK account can get plenty of things wrong, delete the posts and then still look correct. They have no journalistic code of conduct to follow and can therefore freely report rumours without factual merit. And if it goes wrong? You can guarantee they will absolve themselves of all blame by saying “the source got it wrong.”

5 – Newcastle have always been a secretive club. Business is hush at the best of times and it sometimes isn’t a bad thing. With Pardew, McClaren and Rafa all being around in the last few years, it would be amazing to think that other staff members still remain on the NUFC payroll but find time to quickly text over a random bloke, who likely lives in a bedsit, that something big is going to happen.

NUFC360 is a fan site and we will do our best to hunt around for genuine news. We will quite likely get stuff wrong (we’re only human) but nobody decides to pick a player at random and link them to another club out of boredom. Fans come to us for genuine reports and we always endeavour to separate the wheat from the chaff and provide followers with reputable and trustworthy reports.

Expect transfer news to pick up after the European Championships come to a close early next month. It will be a long summer, with departures an inevitability, as well as players arriving. However, due to Benitez’s substantial pulling power, sizeable transfer kitty and status as club ‘manager’, hopefully an exciting crop of players will be brought in before our long season in the Championship begins away at Fulham on August 5th.