Within seconds of Sunderland even being linked with Younes Kaboul never mind actually signing him, the social media references to earthquakes had begun. In fact, I couldn't even visit my mother yesterday without her bringing it up.
For those unaware, it relates to quotes from 2008 when Roy Keane tried to sign the Frenchman alongside Steed Malbranque, Teemu Tainio and Pascal Chimbonda. In spurning the move, Kaboul's agent, Rudy Raba, said:
"Younes wouldn't join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake. We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don't even think about it."
It's one of those strange ones where the truth gets a little lost in the outrage and it is almost remembered as Kaboul's words rather than his agent's, which of course isn't true.
A year later, Kaboul, then a Portsmouth player, explained his refusal to sign for Sunderland, claiming it was nothing to do with the club at all. Instead, insisted the defender, the Black Cat's hopes of adding him to their squad were collateral damage of a bitter dispute between himself and Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy.
"He (Levy) wanted to treat us like a cow. I said to him, ‘I have a personality and a mind of my own, I am not a dog'. He said I was going to Sunderland, but I said, ‘I go where I want, not where you want me to go'.
"Sunderland are a decent club but I do not like people imposing anything on me, like you are a dog. Life is not like this."
So there we go. It's tough to see what he'd have to gain by fibbing about it literally years before eventually signing for Sunderland. Daniel Levy being a difficult person to do business with isn't exactly hard to believe either.
Suppose it's all immaterial now anyway. He's a Sunderland player, earthquake or not.