According to a report which seemed to start in Italy, Arsenal have offered €18m for Jeison Murillo.

The rumour/report seems to have first appeared on Sky Italia and from there was picked up by the Daily Mirror and Calciomercato.

The initial report claimed that Arsenal would be willing to offer £15m/€18m and that talks were believed to have begun between representatives of Arsenal and Inter Milan regarding the defender.

The website, Calciomercato, then repeated this information (and credited the Mirror as their source, who credited Sky Italia as theirs), but as the story travelled around the internet, it morphed from ‘ready to offer’ into ‘have offered’ – a familiar pattern for many stories which are just repeated from one website to the next without anyone stopping to ask themselves what is actually going on here.

Speaking back in April, the central defender, who only signed for the Italians (from Granada where Jon Toral has gone on loan), said (when linked with Manchester United and Chelsea) “I want to stay at Inter.

“I am an Inter player and am not thinking about the future right now.

“Coming to Serie A has really helped me improve, although it was difficult at first to adapt to a very tactical and physical league.”

Given that the 24-year-old made 34 Serie A appearances last season, has only been there a year and has shown no signs of wanting to leave, it’s hard to see anything coming of this rumour at all unless Inter are so strapped for cash they see a £9m profit on a player who still has four years left on his contract and is a regular starter as a good deal.

Hmmm.