The latest trend to hit the football world is one that in its short life has already been splitting opinion. some love the inventive new ways, however some aren’t so well versed on the new social media craze. One thing that can be said for certain is that it’s an ingenious way of attracting attention to the club. It builds up a new type of excitement and even the smaller clubs can impress and be the most ingenious. There are definitely ways of doing it right, and doing it wrong though.
Let’s start off with some of the funny, even hilarious and embarrassing ways players have been announced. Firstly, there was Terry going to Villa via WhatsApp, which hosted some terrible texting between Dr Tony Via, Steve Bruce and John Terry. It seemed for most of what he said in the video Dr tony Xia was trying to work out percentages on his calculator. It was partially saved with some humour from Agbonlahor, who’s used to being a laughing stock on the pitch, and now off it as well. However overall the use of the messaging app just made most fans cringe. Next was Stoke signing Josh Tymon, firstly attempted to copy Liverpool with Salah, however, this was a calamity. For some strange reason Tymon was tweeting from the Stoke Twitter account to “SIGN SOMEONE”. I’m guessing the Stoke fans had the same bemused face as Tymon as the camera panned to him. If you’re signing for a new club, you should at least make it look like you want to be there.
The next player announcement is quite possibly the most cringeworthy, poorly acted unveiling. Chelsea signing Rudiger. The acting was atrocious, and the way that he was announced was so poor. Better effort is needed in how to execute, however the idea behind it was at least creative. Moving on to another high profile one, it’s Paul Pogba. When looking back, this was the first signing that began this trend. The whole unveiling of Pogba online, having a red devil shaved into his hair, which for most games was in better form than him. And then the hashtag: Pogback and the twitter emoji led to the whole transfer being mocked and turned into a complete joke. Due to the fee spent, as well as the performances Pogba put in, made the whole thing seem like a circus.
Despite some clubs getting it very wrong when announcing a player, some have managed to do it justice. Firstly Liverpool, who had Mo Salah scrolling through hundreds of tweets reading “announce Salah”. It was original and unlike Tymon with Stoke, Salah actually seemed happy to be signing which helped. The next announcements done right where by an actual club with two signings, Yeovil town have really put others to shame with their ingenious ways of announcing signings. Firstly Jake Gray was announced using Snapchats new map feature, with the player appearing in the middle of the ground, absolutely brilliant to pick up on the new feature. Secondly Yeovil picked up the signing of Olufela Olumola from Southampton on a season long loan. And in another ingenious tweet, used Fifa Career Mode to announce the signing, it was simple and effective and all the gamers loved it.
The next was Crystal Palace, who announced Frank De Boer as their new manager. Using the famous Caribbean takeaway next to Selhurst Park. And a reference to the inauguration of The Pope with the smoke in the chimney to draw in the press. It was clever and for the Palace fans showed the club had put some effort and thought into it. The final great announcement was Arsenal utilising a quiz aimed at the more eagle eyed viewers. Displaying a list of 9 players Wenger had signed horizontally, the aim was to find who the tenth player was, and the names spelt Kolasinac when looked at vertically. Genius and also a challenge for fans.
In this new age of social media and football, it’s refreshing to see creative and different ways of introducing players. However there is the issue of some clubs needing to up their social media game. They tread a fine line when using players to act, as seen with Rudiger, it was pants. Keeping it simple and original seems to be the best way to make a statement and get the fans excited. It also helps, in terms of Crystal Palace, connecting with the fans, and with Liverpool, finally responding to what the fans wanted. Hopefully in the coming days, if not weeks we will see some more players unveiled by Liverpool, and hopefully some fresh new ways to introduce as currently it’s inventive and could be the start of something new.