FIRST there was the story about Stoke City being the new Derby County who would be relegated after one season.

Then there was the endless obsession with discussing Rory Delap’s long throws, as if any team could compete in the Premier League with only one weapon at its disposal.

Now the so-called experts in the national sport writing fraternity have found another way to fill columns in newspapers and their websites ticking over with a Stoke City story. Liam Lawrence.

Apparently he’s not happy because he’s not getting in the Stoke City first team and wants a move to Derby County.

Er, no. Sorry lads, you need to check your facts.

If you check your own archives, print or web, you’ll find that you did stories earlier in the season about Liam and his dog.

The dog got in Liam’s way as he was going down the stairs at home and he fell, injuring ankle ligaments.

He has been out of the team as a result. Not because Tony Pulis does not want to play him.

In fact he was a regular in the first team before the injury.

Now I can understand why Derby’s manager Nigel Clough would want to take Liam on loan, in the same way as he jokingly said he’d like to take Paul Scholes on loan from Manchester United.

But there’s not a cat in hell’s chance of it happening if Liam’s going to be fit enough to play for Stoke.

After all Tony Pulis bought him to the club. He was one of our star players last season, he scored 15 goals and created more than that.

Given that creating goal scoring chances is one area where Stoke are sorely lacking, what on Earth would possess Stoke to loan him out if he’s fit?

I suppose as fans we just have to accept that most of those who write about our team will have little or no knowledge of its players and little interest.

And given the poor success rate of most national news organisations in predicting who we will sign, maybe we should think twice about believing what they say.

The truth is that they care about Top Four teams and very little else.