The madness of transfer deadline day has officially gone surreal. Gareth Paisey (who, like everyone else in the band is known professionally by his first name followed by “Campesinos!), otherwise known as the lead singer of the British indie group Los Campesinos!, is on Twitter, right now, pretending to be Martin Samuel and doing a damn good job of it. Pepe Reina to Arsenal? It must be true, it’s coming from respected football writer Martin Samuel.
BREAKING NEWS: Sources at Melwood have confirmed #Liverpool have accepted a bid for Jose Reina from #Arsenal. An amazing development #LFC
— Martin Samuel (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
The genius of this is that Gareth’s Twitter account is verified (natch), so when people see the “Martin Samuel”, the picture of Martin Samuel (available on Wikipedia) and the little blue check mark next to the name Martin Samuel, they’re not really going to ask too many more question.
I almost feel bad for explaining the gag. It’s so truly brilliant it feels wrong to let people in on it.
*UPDATE*
It’s over.
Gareth has owned up to the tomfoolery, though he did pull this tried and true move first.
WTF, I think my account was hacked?
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
Love that bit.
Evening guys. I’m not Martin Samuel (It said that in my profile). I thought I’d have a bit of fun with #transferdeadlineday
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
It’s a ridiculous football day and I wanted to see how many legit football outlets I could trick into tweeting about or running the story.
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
The answer to that was “lots”. They’re shysters. Loads of paid football journos passed of my lie as their own knowledge.
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
He even explained why he is verified.
I have a “verified” twitter account because I’m in the band ‘The Vaccines’, not because Twitter messed up.
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
Which is not true. The Vaccines part, I mean.
STATS: over 2,500 RTs. Trending #1 (Reina to Arsenal) and #9 (Martin Samuel) in the UK, #4 Worldwide. Gained over 2,000 (temp) followers
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
I just wish I got that cunt FourFourTom.
— Gareth David (@grthdvd) January 31, 2013
You’ll get him next time, Gareth. Congratulations on all of your success. Best transfer day gag ever.
