27 weird & wonderful Twitter transfer announcements: Sanchez, Salah, Terry…

Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are just some of the many clubs to have announced signings with slightly bizarre social media videos.
The social media confirmation of a transfer has become a form of modern art in recent years, with clubs seemingly desperate to outdo each other.
Here, we’ve taken a look back at some of the weirdest and most wonderful player unveilings, featuring the likes of Paul Pogba, Mo Salah and, of course, Alexis Sanchez.
Alexis Sanchez – Manchester United
🎹 Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Introducing #Alexis7…#GGMU #MUFC @Alexis_Sanchez pic.twitter.com/t9RIIx4mE4
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 22, 2018
Apparently he actually was playing the piano, which impressed us. But we’re still left wondering who came up with this idea and put it to Sanchez? Unless it was his idea, of course…
Georges-Kevin Nkoudou – Tottenham
Once upon a time… pic.twitter.com/zmO5acV797
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 31, 2016
This just seems like an awful lot of hassle to go through to announce the signing of Nkoudou. The duration of the video (35 seconds) is over 50% the amount of Premier League minutes (1) the winger played for Tottenham in the 2017-18 campaign.
Lucas Perez – West Ham
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy? pic.twitter.com/Wl0Ul9VifT— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) August 9, 2018
Not only is imagining Perez will cost fantasy football players £6.5m a bit of a stretch, but the “smile” at the end of this video just makes it complete.
Jake Gray – Yeovil Town
The new @Snapchat feature is pretty cool. You can see who's at Huish Park…✍️⚽️😉 #YTFC pic.twitter.com/YhFHRd7wM0
— Yeovil Town FC (@YTFC) June 26, 2017
Next time Yeovil use Snapchat to announce a signing we hope it’s the player sat on the toilet bored after training.
Andre Moreira – Aston Villa
ICYMI: Love Island might be over but we're delighted to announce that a new boy has entered the Villa…#AVFC pic.twitter.com/I2rwt6RnDK
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) August 1, 2018
Ok, we do actually appreciate the “enter the Villa” pun in all fairness.
Sead Kolasinac – Arsenal
Right, time for a quick quiz…
The following 🔟 players have been signed by Arsène Wenger – can you spot them all? pic.twitter.com/ewEpmDRRs4
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) June 6, 2017
We’re not sure that Arsenal listing 10 players fans would rather have seen them sign was a good way of announcing Kolasinac.
Sandro Ramirez – Everton
👀 | It's that time again… pic.twitter.com/DlrGSc2MJW
— Everton (@Everton) July 3, 2017
This looks like Ramirez has been held hostage somewhere and Everton have come to rescue him, which coincidentally is exactly how Malaga will probably re-sign the striker.
Arthur – Barcelona
👋 Welcome @arthurmeloreal! Bem-vindo!
⚽️ #EnjoyArthur
🔵🔴 #EnjoyBarça pic.twitter.com/18YQ4uOXjW— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 9, 2018
Right, what the hell is this all about?
Roque Mesa – Swansea City
An English lesson with a twist… 👀🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/wc7WsGcnHc
— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) July 6, 2017
Nice, innocent fun, featuring the customary awkward thumbs up from Mesa. This would have been better if Angel Rangel had tried to teach the midfielder the Welsh language.
Lorenzo Pellegrini – Roma
🎮⚽️… 🆕🔶🔴❗️#ASRoma pic.twitter.com/mjgBrwduHV
— AS Roma (@OfficialASRoma) June 30, 2017
You know how your mate Craig keeps suggesting your team should sign players he’s in his Ultimate Team? Turns out that’s exactly how Monchi discovers players for Roma.
Oscar Gobern – Yeovil Town
🎥 | It's a match! 👀 ✍️ #YTFC pic.twitter.com/GdacdEVZ0H
— Yeovil Town FC (@YTFC) December 1, 2017
Someone at Huish Park is certainly inventive.
Antonio Rudiger – Chelsea
Which name would you get on the back of your @nikefootball Chelsea home shirt today? 👀 #WeAreThePride pic.twitter.com/WKmYxd2x0K
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 9, 2017
We’re genuinely embarrassed by this one.
Jan Bednarek – Southampton
✍️: @SamGallagher40
✍️: @jackstephens_18
✍️: 👀#saintsfc pic.twitter.com/AaGFM9Cnfe— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 1, 2017
The problem with Southampton being incredibly subtle about signing Bednarek was that nobody has any idea who he is and they had to explain it in a subsequent tweet.
Mo Salah – Liverpool
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 22, 2017
Admittedly, Salah looks painfully awkward at the end, but this is fine. It sort of pokes fun at the whole concept and mercifully lasts only 17 seconds.
Ilkay Gundogan – Manchester City
@MCFC ANNOUNCE GUNDOGAN! 😉
— Ilkay Gündogan (@IlkayGuendogan) June 2, 2016
We quite like this one, tbh. It’s pretty much exactly the same as Liverpool announcing Salah but without the awkwardness of putting a reticent footballer in front of a camera.
Nathan Ake – Bournemouth
👀#afcb 🍒 pic.twitter.com/gtUWEDzIPV
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) June 30, 2017
Yep, this is good.
Jesus Navas – Sevilla
¡¡¡Es nuestro!!! https://t.co/sTUFTfcyvS
— Sevilla Fútbol Club (@SevillaFC) August 1, 2017
We think staging a kidnap might just be a bit too far.
Jay Rodriguez – West Brom
… 👀#WBA pic.twitter.com/zVmXeEYMmf
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) July 2, 2017
In an ideal world West Brom would reply to the original tweet with a video of Rodriguez telling Riece to “wind his f*cking neck in”.
Marcel De Jong & David Edgar – Vancouver Whitecaps
de Jong and Edgar: captured ✔️ #VWFC #PokemonGo pic.twitter.com/QbZKxwPOJC
— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) July 13, 2016
We think Pokemon Go was still a thing in 2016? We presume it’s not now? Who knows.
Josh Tymon – Stoke City
👀 @JoshuaTymon signs a five-year deal with #SCFC#WelcomeJosh 👍 pic.twitter.com/Unx4RY7v3K
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) July 5, 2017
Winner of the most awkward thumbs up in the history of the universe. Now we’re not seeing the guy managing the website that day didn’t know that much about Josh Tymon, but notice the Wikipedia tab…
They also had the Oatcake forum open. It’s always nice to know whether your work is appreciated.
Frank De Boer – Crystal Palace
💭💭💭 pic.twitter.com/ruXld8jy08
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) June 26, 2017
Thirty-five unexplained seconds of white smoke billowing out of a chicken shop to announce De Boer becoming the new Pope of South London. Perfectly nonsensical, much like the Dutchman’s tenure in charge of the Eagles.
Jamie Ness – Plymouth Argyle
Some pictures that we just came across #incoming #pafc pic.twitter.com/bLbnUCo1Nu
— Plymouth Argyle FC (@Only1Argyle) June 22, 2017
Plymouth spent the summer tweeting pretty difficult cryptic pictograms for who they’ve signed. The first response to this suggested “Legonoodle Windermere is a cracking player”.
John Terry – Aston Villa
📱✍️ pic.twitter.com/G2DxMQhAv6
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) July 3, 2017
Imagine what actually gets posted in a WhatsApp group featuring John Terry, Gabby Agbonlahor and Jack Grealish.
Bruno Viana – Sporting Braga
🕹A época ainda não acabou, mas já estamos em modo “vamos apanhá-los todos” no que toca a reforços para 2018/19 🕹
Sabe mais em 👉 https://t.co/s4zYjE3VYY pic.twitter.com/1tqfyWLm2k
— SC Braga (@SCBragaOficial) March 13, 2018
Braga created a brilliant Pokemon animation to announce their permanent capture of on-loan Olympiakos defender Viana on a five-year deal. They will be hoping the 23-year-old Brazilian will be able to – *sideways glance to camera* – evolve into a world-class international.
Ronaldo Vieira – Sampdoria
BREAKING: #Sampdoria sign #Ronaldo! pic.twitter.com/vTZafVkMBF
— Sampdoria English (@sampdoria_en) August 3, 2018
Poking fun at Juventus’ announcement of *Cristiano* Ronaldo, Sampdoria announced their own Ronaldo (Vieira).
Paul Pogba – Manchester United
PogBOOM is coming to Old Trafford.@paulpogba: Welcome home to @ManUtd.#FirstNeverFollowshttps://t.co/UKrEgp7Mcy
— adidas Football (@adidasfootball) August 8, 2016
We can’t really forgive the whole ‘PogBOOM’ thing, but this was actually really great and should have forced other clubs to just stop trying. Pogba and Stormzy have won.
Santi Cazorla – Villarreal
#VuelveLaMagia | Y por arte de magia 🎩, el deseo más fuerte de los 'groguets' se hizo realidad 💛. @19SCazorla volverá a defender la camiseta amarilla y a despertar los sueños del #EstadioDeLaCerámica 😍🏟. pic.twitter.com/nbhiH92N3s
— Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) August 10, 2018
We step away from the usual social media efforts to be different for this from Villarreal, who completely unnecessarily got a magician to make Cazorla appear in a plume of smoke, even though it was common knowledge that the midfielder had returned to the Spanish club.
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