COMMENT: It's a smokescreen, right? Eric Dier to Manchester United? C'mon, it's staring us in the face. This has the same MO as the Romelu Lukaku deal. Jose Mourinho's next midfield signing isn't coming from the Premier League...
United fans are no mugs. And when Marco Verratti announced to us all he'd dumped Donati di Campli for Mino Raiola, putting two and two together was no loony tunes equation.
Raiola is building quite a stable at Carrington. Lukaku joining Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sergio Romero, whom Raiola has just negotiated a pay-rise for, as United representatives of the Italian. And of course, Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains on site, making full use of their facilities as he continues his rehab from knee surgery.
So it makes sense, right? Verratti, a favourite of Mourinho's, going with the agent who has done more business with United than anyother over the past year.
And the plot runs deeper when considering Raiola's fractured (yeah, we say fractured as in football anything can be fixed with cash) relationship with Verratti's lone suitors so far this summer, Barcelona.
If it was up to them, Verratti would already be a Barca player. And by them, we mean Lionel Messi and directors Robert Fernandez and Ariedo Braida, who all met with the Italian during his summer break - conveniently spent in Ibiza. Reading of the sit down between Robert and Verratti concerned PSG directors. But seeing the snaps of Messi and Verratti together infuriated them.
Need to know where all this buzz about Neymar and €222m originated? It was sparked a month ago, as Verratti's holiday pics made their way to Paris.
He could go, it was settled inside the PSG boardroom, but not for less than €100m - and not to Barcelona.
Barca know they stepped over the line. It was they who talked Verratti out of skipping the start of preseason. But the damage was done. And the feeling inside the Catalan club now is PSG's move for Neymar is being driven by sheer spite. There doesn't even have to be a courtesy call from the Parisians. With the buyout clause in place, it's just a matter of depositing the money and ferrying Neymar away. If the Brazilian was really a long-term target, PSG would have come forward last month. His buyout clause jumped from €200m to €222m on July 1.
But for all the drama, there is confidence Neymar will remain at the Nou Camp. It's "retaliation", as former Barca president Joan Gaspart has described it. PSG are spoiling - and they've won. Barca may be keeping hold of Neymar, but he's been unsettled. As has the media and the Blaugrana support.
And the same can be said of Verratti. If he was still desperate to get a move to Barca, he would've kept the combative Di Campli by his side. Raiola has no ties to Barca. Indeed, the only time he passes comment on the Spanish giants is to slate them for not appreciating Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And as we're mentioning spite, it was Raiola who just a fortnight ago offered Ibrahimovic to Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president, selling the Swede's signing as a mutual act of Barca revenge.
So with PSG furious. And Raiola now the go-between. The chances of seeing Verratti in a Blaugrana shirt next season look slim. But the same, as Tribalfootball.com has been informed, can be said of United.
Sources inside PSG tell us the dumping of Di Campli was club driven. Significantly for Barca, PSG didn't push Verratti towards Raiola, but made it clear they would no longer do business with Verratti's rep. His cosying up to Barca was one thing, but when he let slip a conversation with Nasser Al Khelaifi, PSG's president, there was no way back.
Di Campli was sold down the river by the French press, with headlines screaming that he'd claimed Verratti was "a prisoner of the Emir". The Italian did openly discuss Verratti's situation, but there no explosive "prisoner" or "jail" quote.
"Al Khelaifi has told me that if they sell Marco they would never forgive him in Doha," Di Campli said. "Taking Verratti to Barcelona would be like taking [Francesco] Totti away from Roma.
"It's about Doha, where the sovereign of Qatar is based and he, among many other things, owns PSG. The fund is led by Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, whose financial resources are unlimited. Not selling Verratti to Barcelona for €100m has become a matter of pride."
Quite fair, wouldn't you say? But the headlines did the damage. And the local press had their revenge. Di Campli, who had passionately defended Verratti time and again against critical French pundits, was hung out to dry. With Al Khelaifi humiliated, PSG informed Verratti directly: a new contract would be offered, but only if you dumped Di Campli. The rest is history.
And PSG are being celebrated. Not only have they seen off Barca's attempts for Verratti. They've rattled them with their Neymar threat and rid themselves of the irritable Di Campli.
But it could all change again. Al-Khelaifi need only ask his counterpart at Chelsea, Roman Abramovich. In a blink of an eye, well let's say 48 hours, what was to be his record striker signing finished at United and with Mourinho - and all because of one particular man: Mino Raiola.
