First up was Sir Bobby telling reporters that he believed the story to be a complete fabrication.
"I know absolutely nothing about that," he said. "As far I'm concerned there's not an inkling of truth in it. It's a fabricated story. That's my feeling about it."
Then came the inevitable source close to the club who claimed that the £20million fee quoted in the press reports wasn’t enough to persuade Sir Bobby to part with Dyer anyway.
“We don’t want to sell Kieron Dyer and we don’t have to sell him,” said the possibly imaginary press source. “But every player has his price.
“That price for Kieron Dyer is £25million, and it is only right that both Chelsea and Manchester United should know.”
Even Sir Alex Ferguson got in on the act laughing off questions about the reports with an unusually jovial response.
“Kieron Dyer? It’s a new one,” said the Scot. “Thanks for hitting me with that one.”
The one dissenting voice was The Sun which claimed Dyer is desperate to move to Old Trafford, but provided no quotes to back up the ‘exclusive’.
So it appears that Manchester United aren’t interested (we’ve seen in the past few seasons that they are happy to court their transfer targets through the press) and Chelsea will be told to up their offer, if they intend to make one.
The only nagging doubt is The Sun’s report. Generally tabloid speculation can be ignored, but Dyer is a regular contributor to the paper so for once they may genuinely have the inside track on a player’s thoughts.
Seems a little unlikely though.