Rumor Skeptic: RSL linked with Wycombe Wanderers center back — why it won’t happen

Sometimes, rumors drop right in your lap, and you can be discerning about their truth. Other times, you have no idea if they’re accurate or not. This is one of those times.

Adam El-Abd, a center back who is plying his trade at Wycombe Wanderers in League One, England’s third division, is the subject of the latest of such shaky rumors. El-Abd also played under Bob Bradley during a two-year run with Egypt’s national team.

So here’s the weird thing about this rumor: It’s very specific. Rumors are rarely this specific, especially from anonymous accounts.

But here’s the thing: this is from a week ago. Monday — the Monday they’re referring to — has come and gone. I think we can be relatively certain that this move isn’t happening, so let’s talk about why.

First, this is an anonymous account that’s plying their trade basically resharing other people’s rumors. The rumors that they don’t source — as terrible as their sourcing is when they do — are pretty low-stakes, where nobody’s likely to really double check, because they simply don’t care. For an England-focused account, MLS rumors are not going to get double-checked.

Second, this claims reports in the USA are the source here. With a transfer-hungry fan base, you’d imagine we’d have heard about such reports. They simply don’t exist, unless they’ve been published on somebody’s Blogspot without an accompanying tweet.

Third, the rumor has a specific claim: “Will be announced Monday.” Given the tweet’s a week old, we can verify that claim. But while the specificity lends some credence and believability to it, it’s also given us something to check against. But given we know that people tend to not actually check those things if they’re not directly affected in some way, it’s an easy way for this account to seem more “in the know.”

Fourth, we have a couple international irons in the metaphorical fire, and unless we move players, we’ll be completely full in that concern. That makes this move extremely unlikely on its own, but I wouldn’t call it damning, given we can still make plenty of moves.

But I do want to ask one more question around this: Do we need a center back? It’s a broader topic of discussion. Our center back group is pretty solid at current, I think. Let’s go over it very quickly.

Our center back contingent at current is Justen Glad, Marcelo Silva, Nedum Onuoha, Nick Besler, and Erik Holt. Holt is an unknown at this point, and Silva is a flight or injury risk. Besler, for me, is better as a midfielder than a forward, but in a pinch, he’s fine in the back. I actually do think another center back would do us some good — but this guy’s not coming here.