We Didn't Make These Up: Liverpool Echo's Most Ridiculous Clickbait Headlines

No, we didn't make these up.

These are genuine Liverpool Echo headlines and social posts, and part of a wider pattern L1Local has covered in the downfall of the Liverpool Echo. The dates below link to the originals.

We've put the answers in too. That's the bit the headline takes out.

“I visited the tiny underrated Liverpool park that felt proper Scouse”

28 June 2026 · Liverpool Echo

A park that felt proper Scouse.

It raises questions nobody had previously thought necessary to ask about public green space.

Presumably somebody checked the duck's postcode.

It's Greenbank Park.

What made it proper Scouse was some kids with water guns.

“Dad couldn't believe what Harvey Elliott asked him while getting his hair cut”

21 June 2026 · Liverpool Echo on X

Harvey Elliott asked a man a question while having his hair cut.

The question was apparently sufficiently powerful to interfere with the man's ability to believe things.

What did he ask?

He asked if he fancied getting his hair cut.

That's the question. That's the whole thing.

And it wasn't Harvey Elliott who asked. It was his dad.

The man in the chair was Ryan Omara, out with his eight-day-old son, diagnosed with Crohn's that January. Elliott's dad clocked him and sorted the appointment.

Nice story. Well hidden.

“Birkenhead man went into Liverpool pub and left customers amazed”

13 April 2026 · Liverpool Echo

A man from Birkenhead entered a Liverpool pub.

So far, nothing requiring the mobilisation of local media.

Then he took hold of a microphone and performed for the pub. That information, however, would have seriously damaged the mystery.

Man enters pub. Customers amazed.

Much better.

“Liverpool shop's three-word message to Mo Salah days after emotional revelation”

27 March 2026 · Liverpool Echo

The three-word message is one of the finest tools available to modern clickbait.

Three words are short enough to fit comfortably in a headline. Which is exactly why you must never put them there.

The message was:

“Thank you Mo.”

There. Carry on with your day.

“Man 'couldn't believe what he saw' when got to his car”

4 November 2025 · Liverpool Echo on X

Liverpool Echo stories contain an unusually high number of people temporarily unable to believe something.

This gentleman reached his car and joined them.

What did he see?

His windscreen, stoved in.

A group in balaclavas, Southport, 30 October, one of them jumping on the glass while he was at a pool match over the road.

The rest of these are daft. This one made a guessing game out of somebody's wrecked car.

The system

After enough of these, the technique becomes fairly clear.

Start with the useful information.

Remove it.

Insert one of the following: what happened, what he saw, couldn't believe, verdict, revelation or three-word message.

Then send the reader in to retrieve the missing noun.

Preferably past an advert or two.

Our own corrections policy is the opposite bet: put the missing detail in, not out.

“Met Office weather map gives bank holiday verdict for Liverpool”

24 August 2026 · Liverpool Echo on X

The Met Office used to issue forecasts.

Now its maps apparently issue verdicts.

The evidence was considered.

Liverpool was found guilty of weather.

The verdict: heavy showers, maybe thunder.

In the North West. On a bank holiday.

“Foo Fighters leave verdict on Liverpool after two Anfield gigs”

28 June 2026 · Liverpool Echo on X

Another verdict.

For a city with no formal proceedings under way, Liverpool receives a remarkable number of them.

Two nights at Anfield and the Foo Fighters were apparently ready to deliver judgment.

Fortunately, nobody had to wait for sentencing.

The verdict was an Instagram caption.

“Another epic night in Liverpool!”

Case closed.

“£12.50 notebook is actually worth a 'tremendous' fortune”

28 June 2026 · Liverpool Echo

How much?

That is quite literally the story.

A £12.50 notebook is worth an unexpectedly large amount of money, but the amount itself has been removed.

It's difficult to imagine a cleaner example of the system.

It's worth £150 to £250.

A tremendous fortune, then, of about two hundred quid.

And eventually...

There is really only one place left for this to go.

“Liverpool dad couldn't believe three-word verdict after what was found in underrated city park”

Who?

What park?

What was found?

What verdict?

What three words?

Nothing.

A headline containing plenty of words and virtually no news.

You'd probably still click it.

Which rather explains the problem.

A park. A haircut. A bit of rain. An Instagram caption. Two hundred quid.

None of it needed hiding.