Oh dear. After praising the Manchester Evening News they appear to have then fallen victim to the latest Elano speculation. Here's what we know. Late on the 5th of June the Daily Mail - yes them again - carried a quote from Elano claiming that either he would get a new contract from City or he was off. Now the problem with all of this is that there doesn't appear to be a specific source. Was the Daily Mail actually at the Brazilian training camp? Or was it reported by some other source and if so who?

This becomes relevant because of the wording. In the Daily Mail piece and a couple of sites that picked up the story, without attribution to either an original source or the Daily Mail if they were said source, Elano is quoted as having had a discussion with the "club's management." By the time the story gets to the Sky Sports and Manchester Evening News websites this wording has changed, crucially I feel, to a discussion "with the board."

And that expression is what you will find in all the subsequent coverage from Setanta to Eurosport.

So what did Elano say, if anything and to whom? The implication is that there was a translation somewhere by someone. I don't think any of us believe he actually spoke to "the board." Who did the translation? Did they do the original interview with Elano?

The problem of course is that this poisons the well when it comes to the fans and their appreciation of the Brazilian midfielder. Check out any of the coverage that allow comments and the City fans are almost universal in condemning Elano for making such statements. But did he?

So let me relay a little story to you. A true story. You can google my name and Parade magazine and you will find a question about orchestral movie scores. Such scores are one of my passions and the works of Hans Zimmer, John Barry, Ron Goodwin and many others are my preferred listening material as I write. One week the Parade magazine had a question about such scores and there was a response listing a couple of tracks. I wrote in to them online with a general comment that such a conversation would probably open up a can of worms but if they were interested as a fan of the genre I recommend a whole list of tracks. So I was surprised some weeks later to open the magazine to find a completely fabricated question with my name attached and then the answer given is most of the tracks I suggest to them that they might like!

Therefore just because Elano is quoted does not mean he said it. Nine times out of ten when a player, or any other celebrity, says they were misquoted you can trust me on this - they were.