The ABC of football

PITY poor Jose Antonio Reyes - it’s one thing to be caught being “tapped up”, quite another to discover that you’ve really been the victim of a wind-up.

The revelation that the Arsenal player thought he was having a private chat about a move to Real Madrid with the man once known as ‘The Vulture’, former international striker and now club vice-president, Emilio Butragueno - when, in fact, he was really the unwitting victim of a Spanish radio bird of prey - is bound to be a source of acute embarrassment for both Reyes and Arsene Wenger. Especially as it comes hot on the heels of that alleged illegal approach by Chelsea to Ashley Cole.

But if the hoax serves any purpose beyond getting some cheap publicity for the station in question, it’s that it seems to confirm, albeit in entertainingly fictional form, that this type of footballing courtship is altogether par for the course. The only time it becomes an issue is when the suitors are exposed, and then only because they have failed to properly cover their tracks.