DON'T WORRY, WE BELIEVE YOU RIO

Last updated : 13 April 2005 By Editor

Those ‘papers’ sure must have been urgent. And the informed word on the street that has had BackBeat telling readers Ferdinand would be Chelsea-bound (post ban) since November 2003; that had the Guardian stating as fact that Chelsea bid for Ferdinand in March 2004; and that had UWS telling its readers last month that “rumours persist he’s heading to Chelsea having felt duty bound to give United a season after standing by him after his ban. The rumours do seem to have something to them” are all hopelessly off the scent. Obviously.

The order of events in full:

- Saturday night: Rio drives directly to Carpaccio after the defeat at Norwich where he meets Kenyon and Zahavi

- Monday morning: word is out and the Sun and Mirror are both on the case

- Monday evening: the Sun gets a full confession from Zahavi, but as he regularly provides them with stories and tips gets them to agree not to print in exchange for bland “I want to stay at United” quotes from Ferdinand

- Tuesday morning: the Mirror doubles its efforts to nail down the story, and succeeds

- Tuesday afternoon: Zahavi confesses all including that Ferdinand knew Kenyon would be present and Chelsea rush out a statement claiming it was all ‘coincidence’