Twitter: Plagued by ‘In The Know’ accounts…

 

This transfer window has been notable so far not so much for the players bought already by the likes of Manchester City or Liverpool, but for the incredible and ceaseless rumour-mongering on Twitter by countless so-called “ITK” (In the know) accounts.

These have only really sprung up in the past year or so, and simply put, they are created by ordinary members of the public that pass themselves off on Twitter as having some kind of connection to either clubs or players or newspapers. Presumably they hope to get as many followers as possible in order to gain some kind of notoriety or fame - not an unusual thing for people to desire in society these days. What is interesting is that the endless thirst for up-to-the-minute news on the transfer ‘merry-go-round’ ensures that these men are actually on the whole achieving their goals.

Anybody can claim to be an  ‘ITK’ - all you need is a jpeg of a club’s badge for a profile picture, and a twitter handle that reflects the kind of rumours or news you intend to spread (@Chelsea_official for instance) and you’re off and running.

If you don’t want to affiliate yourself with a specific club you could always try the other route, which is passing yourself off as an ‘agent’. Now football agents are shadowy folk at the best of times – for people that earn the kind of money they earn and influence they wield, the general public would be hard pushed to put a face to a single agent’s name. Perfect then, for making a fake twitter profile to tell the world at large the latest on where Cristiano Ronaldo might (or might not) be going in the summer. Some agents on twitter seem like they may be legitimate (@footballagent46 for example) but you can never really be sure. For a start, what would a real football agent gain from spreading vague ‘insider news’ on twitter?

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Some ITKs have provoked considerable ire on social networks. Take @indykaila, a young man dealing in football conjecture who in amassing more than 72,000 followers has managed to launch his own website featuring paid for advertising. He has however, never revealed any of his sources, rarely tweets anything that hasn’t already been announced by official sources, and has had to withstand withering criticism from furious established sports journalists (as well as people who simply accuse him of making things up outright in no uncertain terms). The result of this, is that while he has indeed achieved considerable twitter notoriety, he spends half of his time defending himself, and the other half simply tweeting bizarrely vague announcements like – ‘big LFC news coming up in an hour’ – which of course his followers will return to read. When the ‘big news’ transpires it’s generally yet more rumour, and so the circle continues.

Football is such big business worldwide (and twitter such a far-reaching social network) that a tweet picked up from an ITK can create a rumour-storm in minutes, and on occasion even influence the ‘real’ football world as clubs and players are forced to deny potential moves. So while it may seem like the actions of bored individuals with too much time on their hands, the rise of ITK accounts could actually theoretically have a financial effect on clubs. ‘Man United to sign Bale’ becomes retweeted enough, for example, then it gets into the papers, then his price goes up.

For some, the ITK accounts are harmless, just adding fuel to the transfer rumour fire that keeps all us football fans interested during the long months between seasons. But for others, who live for the clubs they support, they can be an increasing irritation in a world where everybody wants to be famous for something and nothing. Just remember next time you see a transfer rumour on twitter, take it with a large pinch of salt.