Imagine AFL trade week expanded to a month but with players able to be swapped between clubs anywhere in the entire world.
Welcome to the month of July - the start of the official silly season in world football.
That's right, it's wheeling and dealing time, the time of year when the world's most powerful European football clubs will be linked to any number of big-name stars from rival clubs.
With the European Championships having taken centre stage in June, this year's transfer window leading into the start of the next domestic season in August has been condensed into just a few short weeks. Judging by the intense speculation already it will be more frantic than ever.
For anyone who closely follows the annual trade week in Australia's biggest football code - the AFL - they know that for one week in October all you hear about is supposedly this superstar player moving and this player moving and when it is all over usually only one or two truly big name players have changed clubs with the rest of the deals usually involving only batting players desperate for a fresh start.
So imagine the amount of false rumours and incorrect speculation that is bound to emerge over the next month on a far bigger scale as numerous European clubs desperately try to strengthen their playing squads in time for the 2008/09 season.
With the peak transfer period in Europe only just beginning already there is speculation that Real Madrid will poach Manchester United's superstar winger Cristiano Ronaldo while Chelsea has already signed Portuguese superstar Deco.
As usual most of the attention centres on the wealthy English Premier League clubs with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in particular expected to go on major spending sprees over the next month while several of the clubs that are desperately trying to break the stranglehold of the big four, which also includes Arsenal, and attempt to qualify for the riches of the European Champions League are also expected to spend up in a desperate bid to improve their teams.
Amongst these clubs are Tottenham, Manchester City, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Portsmouth.
But there are some rumours - as is always the case during the AFL's trade week as well - that just sound too unbelievable to be true.
In this case it is the speculation that Tottenham vice-captain Robbie Keane could be on his way to Liverpool in exchange for the Reds' tall striker Peter Crouch - who has also been linked to Pompey - as well as around $AU11 million.
And while nothing totally surprises in the mad world of EPL player movements there are some players so closely associated with their clubs that it would send shockwaves through the competition if that player changed clubs.
Other such players are Ryan Giggs at Manchester United, Chelsea captain John Terry and Liverpool pair Steven Gerrard - whose near move to Chelsea a few years ago caused near panic on Merseyside - and Jamie Carragher.
The outcry in North London if Keane - who has scored 80 goals in 197 appearances since joining the club in 2002 - moved to Liverpool would be deafening and it's hard to see just how Spurs, who along with Everton are the club that have come closest to breaking the big-four monopoly in recent years, could 'sell' the move as a positive step forward to its supporters.
The shock speculation about Keane also comes at a time when United is believed to be targeting Keane's strike partner Dimitar Berbatov as its No.1 recruiting priority over the next month.
But before Spurs fans and indeed United fans fret about the possible loss of arguably the world's greatest current player in Ronaldo begin to get too worried - remember it is only the first week of July.
And it is where players are in the middle of August - when the next EPL season gets underway - and not where they are linked to at the start of July that really counts.