The news is not what it seems

You can't beat Newsnow. It's up there with cheap carveries, three-for-£10 bottles of wine, Sky Plus and heated front windscreens (come on Ford, pass it on to the rest of us).

Newsnow is so good it crashes your computer occasionally. Presumably because everyone is reading it.

For those of you who don't know it's a prolific search engine which automatically lists every story relating to any given topic. Albion wise, it means that everything which mentions the club drops down onto the WBA page.

It was sometime last night that a story appeared claiming that Ryan Donk's loan spell had been cut short.

I was at Albion when I found out early this morning. Great timing. I asked the question...'it's rubbish' came the reply. A quick call to the Mail's sports desk to put the record straight - job done.

By lunchtime the 'story' of Donk's exit was here, there and everywhere, with 'news' websites carrying the story as fact. If only they bothered checking...

Anyway, Thursday is press conference day. So that means lot's of hanging around.

First up was a quick chat between myself, a colleague and Luke Moore. He offered some interesting thoughts on his return to Villa and how he'll react if he scores in front of the Holte End.

You can read all in Friday's Birmingham Mail.

Next up was the 'Length'. Or Jonas Olsson if you prefer. Why the Length? The Swede's English is excellent. But every so often he loses a word. When he first arrived at Albion he spoke about putting his 'length' to great use at set-pieces. He meant height. Yeah, yeah, juvenile I know.

And, fair play to Jonas, today was the first press conference he's completed without slipping an expletive in at some stage. His English really is that good. I bet the radio journalists love him. Especially when it's live.

Speaking of the press it was equally amusing to hear one member of the hack pack approach Jonas before his press conference and state 'you may get some strange questions today...some of us work for the British tabloid press'. Jonas nodded politely. Clearly, it wasn't like this at Nijmegen or Landskrona.

Jonas was, in fact, on great form off the pitch, as he is on it. He's a music connoisseur. There's none of this RnB nonsence from the Length. He's a Jagger man, a Hendrix freak, an Oasis devotee. He's a proper music man.

And then Tony Mowbray arrived. Who's fit, who isn't? Will he be eating spaghetti for breakfast, will Morrison be leaving? Gary...forget it.

Transfer wise? Poker Face Mowbray shuffled around, said 'let's wait and see' a few times and answered the questions without actually saying anything.

Miller's had his operation and can start his rehab. He was in good spirits and disappointed not to be asked, once again, about his footballing principles. Amazing what a couple of home wins can do.

Will there be any fresh transfer news in tomorrow's Birmingham Mail? Let's wait and see.