“ Taken together, these formed the droll chronicle of a temperamental young talent, already a regular for the Moldovan national team as a teen, who was convinced of his own greatness—”I Will Destroy Luxembourg and Join Arsenal Says Bugduv” raged one headline—and frustrated by the unending delays, attributed to unspecified “diplomatic issues,” that kept him from completing a move to his favorite club. The stories were just excessive enough to carry a faint Wodehousian aroma if read in sequence, but not quite excessive enough to arouse suspicion in a newspaper writer on a jag of pre-deadline speed-Googling.
