Junya Tanaka to the Sounders isn't a rumor, it's bad research

Searching for rumors far and wide can lead to odd places. Note the mysterious case of Junya Tanaka. The Sporting Lisbon (Sporting CP for the pedantic) forward is connected to the Seattle Sounders on Ojogo, a Portuguese website. Their source? Seattle-based blogs and forums. It's not the only thing from today about this rumor:

@sounderatheart OneFootball app's newsfeed is reporting a rumor - Sporting CP's Junya Tanaka to the Sounders. Any legs to this one?

— Dave Cohen (@A_Dave_Cohen) July 29, 2015

Now, Tanaka would make a lot of sense. Sounders FC know Sporting fairly well. One of their biggest former stars is there, as is another former MLS player. Sporting CP even has some kind of partnership with the New England Revolution (which means MLS, too). Junya had five goals and an assist as a mostly reserve forward who sometimes played as a winger. He would be a good fit for Seattle's needs.

But, here's the thing. Nothing prior to July 27 connected Tanaka and the Sounders. And that connection is just ideation, nothing more. It was one of our readers saying that the player makes sense.

@sounderatheart junya tanaka would make sense.

— koheiy (@koheiy) July 27, 2015

This is the anatomy of a not-really-a-rumor rumor. Unless koheiy works for the Sounders. Maybe it is a rumor after all.