I remember sitting down to interview the golfer Paul Lawrie ahead of an upcoming tournament while Aberdeen were in the middle of a transfer window.
Before we got under way, talk inevitably turned to football and the latest comings and goings at Pittodrie.
“I’ve got a question for you,” said the 1999 Open champion. “How do football journalists get their transfer exclusives?”
Now, that was a good question – definitely better than the 10 I had ready to ask him.
“I wish I knew!” I half-joked in reply.
The truth is a transfer story will normally emerge from one of three parties – the buying club, the selling club or the player and his representatives.
There is an insatiable demand to know what’s happening with the transfer activity at any club. It’s always one of the main topics of interest for fans, especially when the transfer window is open.
If you were to offer a sports reporter one journalism superpower, either the ability to write like Hugh McIlvanney or an endless supply of transfer exclusives, many would be torn.
Hopefully one day the sports hack genie will offer me that dilemma, but until that happens we plod on.
As is often the case in journalism, you stumble across your best stories on your day off – and transfer stories are no exception.
In the summer of 2017, I was walking down Thistle Street in Aberdeen on my way to a baby yoga or “rhythm time” class with my wife and six-month-old daughter.
A guy stepped out of a nearby cafe and walked straight past us towards a very nice looking car.
I recognised him and did that awkward head nod greeting, which was reciprocated.
“Who was that?” asked my wife.
“I’m not sure,” I initially replied, as my sleep-deprived brain worked hard to process who the person was.
Then it suddenly dawned on me.
It was Greg Stewart – someone I had interviewed before during his time at Dundee. He was in the midst of a tough spell at Birmingham City and had been linked with a move back north of the border.
Aberdeen were apparently facing competition for his signature from Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell and his former club Dundee.
But the fact I had seen he was in the Granite City with my very own eyes gave me a good indication which club was winning the race to sign the attacker.
I phoned our sports desk and declared that it looked like Stewart was heading to the Dons.
“How do you know that?”, they quite rightly asked. The Scottish Fabrizio Romano, I was not.
“Well, I can’t reveal my sources, but I’ve almost bumped into him outside Baskin Robbins.”
This fortunate encounter and a few follow-up enquiries from my colleagues who were working that day confirmed Stewart was indeed heading to Pittodrie and we were on our way to a Dons transfer scoop.
So the next time Paul Lawrie asks how we get our transfer exclusives, the answer is an easy one – go to baby yoga.
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