Editorial policy
We separate interest, talks, agreements and official transfers, preserve failed predictions and attribute material claims.
Selection and verification
Almost Signed prioritises material football transfer developments from identifiable original reporting, verified official channels and specialist reporters. A report must identify the player, current club, linked club, transfer direction and source before it can be published as transfer news.
Original reports, repetition and single-source claims
The first identifiable report is labelled as the original report. Articles that merely cite it are not counted as independent confirmation. A single-source claim may be covered when the source is identifiable and the wording remains explicitly attributed, but it cannot be presented as an agreement or official outcome without supporting evidence.
Headline rules
“Interest”, “talks”, “bid”, “agreement”, “medical” and “official” are separate evidence stages. Headlines must not use “bid” without a reported offer, “talks” without reported negotiations, or “deal agreed” without agreement evidence. “Close to signing” and similar certainty language requires strong sourcing and must remain consistent with the Almost Score.
Social media evidence
A social post is used only when the account owner can be identified. Club and competition accounts may confirm what they explicitly announce. Reporter posts retain the reporter’s contextual tier; screenshots, anonymous reposts and copied posts do not become independent sources.
Review and AI safeguards
Automation may discover, group and draft. A story can publish autonomously only when direct-source access, database identity, transfer direction, duplicate detection, claim support, evidence-specific editorial value and an independent model critic all pass. There is no fixed section template: unsupported tactical, financial or squad analysis is omitted rather than padded. Anything uncertain remains in a private review queue.
Sponsored content and commercial separation
Paid or sponsored material, if introduced, will be clearly labelled and kept outside source tiers and scoring. Advertisers, data suppliers and technology providers have no control over headlines, scores, verdicts or corrections.
Updates and corrections
Material revisions carry an updated timestamp and editorial note. Factual errors follow the public Corrections Policy; score changes are recorded on the linked transfer route.