Loïc Rémy In Newcastle. Or Not. More Transfer Window Fun!

As I was performing my morning catch-up of all things Twitter - hoping against hope for big Newcastle United news - I did not see much out of the ordinary. Then one tweet shined through like a beacon cutting the fog on a stormy night:

Kristan Heneage ‏@KHeneage

FootMercato claiming Remy is in the North East. (Via @Sewellyy ) Can't comment on their credibility, but no smoke without fire. #NUFC

I thought that perhaps my entreaty to Cerberus prior to retiring last night may just have born fruit. There were a couple of things (taking the dog out, coffee) that needed attention before I could track down the FootMercato piece and try to figure out exactly what it said. I allowed myself a certain amount of optimism as this tweet was not from an ITK or from the "fans"... To be fair, I don't have a great feel for Kristan Heneage as a tweeter, but have found his work to be mostly solid for ESPN.com, so I have to confess that I allowed myself just a little skip in my step as I walked the dog. Nothing sorted yet, but it would be coming soon, surely.

Fast forward - sitting on my sofa getting ready to dig in on this story a bit. First of course, is a check of the Twitter to see if anyone new has confirmed Rémy in Newcastle or even (!) announced an agreement (right?!). This is why I hate January now. I've moved to a place where the winter climate is much more mild, so I can't hate the bitter cold and snow any longer. Now it's just transfer speculation. In fairness, I should have known better. I have always maintained that everything is a grain of salt situation until it's coming through the Chronicle or the Journal, the Mail, the Telegraph or the Guardian. It was, then, no great surprise to see this as I was double checking through the Twitters again:

Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder

Remy not on Tyneside just yet - despite reports in France. Quest to sign the player still "ongoing" from what I've been told #nufc

Subsequent tweets from French sources indicate the player is with Marseille in Marrakesh... so even if you've lost a little bit of faith in Lee with his bizarre absolution of any blame on the Geordies that played against Brighton and assertion that playing more Geordies (read: Adam Campbell) could have changed things at least on a cosmetic level... it seems pretty solid that the player is not, in fact, in Newcastle. If you should like to find other places that Rémy is not, you should check out the twitters on the hashtag #whereisremy.

So lessons learned: grain of salt, no hope until he's holding a jersey.