Paris Saint-Germain Deny Daniel Sturridge Interest

Earlier today, English rumour mongers claimed that Paris Saint-Germain were plotting a £50M bid for Daniel Sturridge. Given the size of the fee, that PSG aren’t a Premier League rival for Liverpool, and that for all his talent Sturridge remains an injury worry for most, and many would have considered it a fee worth taking.

It only took a few hours, though, for French outlets to get in touch with their sources at PSG to ask about the supposed Sturridge interest, something none of the papers in France had previously known about. What they got back was that there was a good reason they’d never heard whispers of Sturridge to PSG: PSG, quite simply, aren’t interested.

First to the table was Get French Football, who quickly reported back that their sources within the club had told them that PSG "have never considered the possibility of approaching Sturridge and the player is simply not on their radar." Which, as far as the shooting down of a transfer rumour goes, is really about as thoroughly unambiguous as it gets.

Paris Saint-Germain have made no secret that they will be looking at strikers this summer, but their most recent transfer interest is Mauro Icardi, not Daniel Sturridge. In some ways, though, the French club’s quick refutation of the rumour would seem to lead to as many questions as it answers—if there’s no interest, where did the rumour come from?

Occasionally they may be fabricated from whole cloth, but typically, transfer rumours start because somebody with a connection to either one of the clubs or the player feeds a friendly journalist information. Soon enough they develop a life of their own, crossing borders and adding flourishes as each new source passes the rumour down the chain.

At the start, though, there’s usually a club employee dropping a hint or an agent strategically placing a bit of info. And if PSG are out in this case—and with Liverpool unlikely to be dropping hints to the Daily Mail and Manchester’s finest fish wrap, where the rumour started—it’s either coming from Sturridge’s end or it’s completely made up.

Liverpool fans will have to hope that it's the latter, but either way, now that it’s a rumour out there in the wild, one can expect it to rumble on, to grow and shift and change, regardless of PSG’s forceful claims of disinterest. No matter why it began, Sturridge to PSG for something near enough £50M will now be a thing. At least for a time.