Deadline day
Most journalists exhibit a hefty degree of cynicism from time to time.
And it's in the build up to football's transfer deadline that my cynicism levels reach their height.
While speaking to a director of communications at a Premiership football club this week, I inadvertently told him:
"The problem is that we don't believe a word you lot are saying at this time of year . . ."
He wasn't wildly impressed with my sweeping statement - until I quickly reassured him that he and his club were, of course, an honourable exception.
The problem is that when money and transfers are involved, everyone - agents, clubs and players - have a vested interest in fuelling transfer speculation, whether it's true or not even remotely close to the truth.
Our job is to try to steer a course through the games of brinkmanship, bluff and counter-bluff.
As well as the public statements from clubs, our football reporters at Five Live also speak to managers, press officers, agents and players off-the-record (in other words, not for direct reporting). The idea is to find out what's really going on.
I'm always conscious, though, that we're not being used to bump up interest in a player, inflate a transfer fee or help someone negotiate a better contract.
Ultimately, we're not a PR agency for the Premiership - and we need to scratch beneath the surface of the public pronouncements. So, when Arsene Wenger said two weeks ago that Jose Antonio Reyes would not be moving to Real Madrid - in his words the deal was "finished" - it's not always as cut and dried.
I don't want to sound too pious about this - it is only football and transfer news and gossip is voraciously devoured by most supporters.
The bottom line is we want to reflect the stories which interest our listeners, without getting stuck in endless speculation and mis-information.
At least you can't criticise Peter Kenyon for his assessment of the Ashley Cole transfer when we spoke to him at the Champions League Draw a week ago.
"It's going to go down to the wire," he told our reporter, Nigel Adderley. He wasn't wrong there.
