If Liverpool was as famous for its gossip as it is for music and football, it would undoubtedly be the gateway to the entire universe.
Many a Chinese whisper has been uttered in this city and whilst most fade into obscurity, others are repeated ad nauseum to the point where they are interpreted as fact by the naive masses.
Rumours were such a fabric of day-to-day life in Liverpool during the 1980s that there was even a bar/restaurant on Smithdown Road of the same name.
Everything from the UFO-like sightings of Thierry Henry speeding Deysbrook Lane en route to complete a medical at Melwood to the malicious slurs about Steven Gerrard's personal life have been spread like wildfire through word of mouth, text messaging and the internet.
Martin Broughton's admission that no bidders have been forthcoming for Liverpool when unveiling Roy Hodgson as the club's new manager a fortnight ago did very little to kill the buzz surrounding unsubstantiated claims of a Middle Eastern takeover on July 15.
When he was appointed chairman in April, Broughton warned that no sale of the club would be conducted through the media; which has fanned the flames further.
Suddenly, every pub dweller, cab driver and even hairdresser has sources in Wall Street and Dubai and seems to know every specific detail which many a national tabloid writer would be proud of.
Tittle tattle such as this would normally be disregarded but given the turmoil in which Liverpool currently finds itself, fans are consumed with such desperation that they cling to the slightest piece of hearsay about a potential change of ownership in the hope that it is true.
Now that this supposed day of reckoning is upon us, it should be evident to those who believed that this was true that it was all an elaborate rouse by internet rumour-mongers, who most likely have never even set foot on Merseyside let alone inside Anfield.
This one should be confined to the archives of bullshit alongside Robbie Fowler buying illegal substances from someone in a Mini Cooper and Jamie Carragher's Everton tattoo.
So the next time you receive supposedly insider information that sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
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