Arsenal are apparently getting ready a £15m bid for Albanian defender Elseid Hysaj who was on absolutely nobody’s radar before he faced Switzerland at the Euros.

Of course, what I mean is that he wasn’t being linked with Arsenal. I’m sure Arsene Wenger already knew about him.

One Google for ‘Arsenal Hysaj’ shows that the oldest link, on the first four pages for any story claiming Arsenal are interested in him, was Sunday apart from one – a story on Goal.com.

Their story came in the wake of the match and seemed to be the starting point for the majority of the rumours we’ve seen over the past 24-48 hours. Their source? The Daily Star.

On the fifth page of Google, however, there was a story from the Record in Portugal from four days ago which links Arsenal with the right-back as a replacement for Hector Bellerin whom Arsenal are, according to this report, ready to sell to Barcelona.

They aren’t.

I thought this might be the original report but the Portuguese outfit claim they got their story from the Daily Star as well.

The Star have historic links with Arsenal when it comes to getting insider information, although how true that is these days with the death of their former editor, Brian Woolnaugh and the retirement of Sir Peter Hill-Wood (who were friends) is not clear.

The Star themselves seem to be ground zero for this story, one which they rehashed over the weekend (or, at the very least, republished).

Their EXCLUSIVE was dated 12th June but the report from Portugal was from timestamped on Google ‘3 days ago’ at the time of writing (13th June) even though the timestamp on the article itself states that it was published on 12th June at 12.14pm.

Anyway, why is that important? Well, many people judge a transfer rumour by how many outlets are covering it without actually realising the majority of sites (and reporters these days) simply get their stories from other sites and add little-to-no extra to the story.

This story is everywhere, but it has all come from the Daily Star. That, in itself, doesn’t make it untrue.

But just because it has been repeated everywhere doesn’t make it true, either.

Also, before you get concerned that Hector could be off and Arsenal are preparing for life after the Spaniard (they aren’t), Hysaj can also play on the left and with doubts hanging over Kieran Gibbs’ future, they could well be in the market for two full-backs this summer (Mathieu Debuchy will certainly need replaced).

A player who can play both right and left would light Wenger up like a Christmas tree. He loves a versatile player, and for just £15m, this might be one to watch.

Might.