Arsenal and Manchester City are said to be involved in a ‘nasty’ transfer tussle over 16-year-old winger, Jadon Sancho, but there is no evidence to support this assertion.

The S*n on Sunday were screaming about the nastiness in their headline:

170226 sun sancho

But the text of the piece makes no mention of any problems between the two clubs. In addition to what’s written above, the sum total of the rest of the piece reads, “The Gunners’ top scout Steve Rowley has been tracking him and City are worried the potential first-teamer could be lured away.

“Sancho has trained with Pep Guardiola’s top squad but a return to the capital with Arsenal may be too much to resist.”

That’s it. The rest of the article is, randomly, about the Gent goalkeeper so perhaps there was a cut and paste fail somewhere in the sub-editor’s office. Either way, they present zero evidence to warrant this headline.

A player who has already trained with the City first team under Pep Guardiola, Sancho turns 17 next month and will be eligible to sign a professional contract, including sign up bonuses. We should know much more about his intentions when that happens. Or doesn’t.

If the S*n have reason to believe there is a ‘nasty’ element to  this transfer ‘tussle’ then they are keeping it to themselves. The ‘nasty’ element of the story, which on available evidence doesn’t even exist, is spreading to reports on other sites as they parrot the S*n’s story.