Nothing gets a club’s fans going more than a big new signing, especially if it’s a well-known player who’s been bought for a large fee. With transfer fees ever-rising and players moving clubs than ever before, even with the transfer windows only being open at certain times, the excitement levels are off the charts.
It’s no surprise then that when a club does manage to make a new signing, the way the player is unveiled by the club is suddenly becoming more and more of a big deal. The days of the player posing with their new manager and shirt in a traditional format are slowly fading out, being replaced by more flashy unveilings.
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And while some have worked well – Arsenal’s cryptic crossword to introduce Saed Kolasinac was fantastic – some have been clunky and downright cringeworthy. Here are five of the worst.
#5 Paul Pogba to Manchester United, 2016
Ah, things could’ve been so different had Alex Ferguson simply used Paul Pogba during his first run at Manchester United – where he was nurtured by their vaunted academy. However, in 2011/12 the Scotsman, tempted Paul Scholes out of retirement rather than have faith on the young Frenchman/ Pogba decided to leave for Juventus when his contract was up and that is where he developed into one of the world’s most highly rated midfielders.
Fast-forward to 2016 and United were looking to flex their financial muscles following three seasons of disappointment after Ferguson’s retirement. They’d already brought Zlatan Ibrahimovic aboard, but after Euro 2016 was over everyone knew the player they really wanted was Pogba. And after plenty of will-he-won’t-he paper talk and protracted negotiations, they finally got their man for a world-record fee of £89m.
It’s a pity, then, that they didn’t technically have a chance to unveil the player themselves. Instead, Pogba and his sponsors Adidas decided to do it before the club had the chance, by producing an awful video starring Pogba alongside grime superstar Stormzy, both men dancing as Stormzy fired off some quick-fire raps.
If it’d been an official United video then perhaps it’d have come off better, but as it was it felt self-serving, overhyped, and a lot of style over substance – basically all of the criticisms of the mega-money transfer and of Pogba himself. It garnered a lot of attention, but for my money, it’s one of the worst unveilings that football’s ever seen.
#4 Robinho to Manchester City, 2008
This one wasn’t bizarre, clunky or cringe-worthy, but it was certainly a major embarrassment to Manchester City as they unveiled their biggest ever signing on transfer deadline day at the start of the 2008/09 season. Newly minted with Abu Dhabi money, it was known that City were willing to spend big, but this transfer took everyone by surprise.
Brazilian forward Robinho was apparently so unhappy at Real Madrid that he’d cried in the office of club president Ramon Calderon as he demanded a transfer. And he had a suitor in the form of Premier League giants Chelsea, who looked set to sign the Brazilian before the transfer window closed shop until January 2009.
They hadn’t counted on City’s takeover though, and suddenly their move was gazumped and Robinho ended up in Manchester and not London. The only problem was that nobody had seemed to tell the Brazilian this. In his first press conference to announce the British record £32.5m move, he explained to the press that he was glad that Real had accepted the offer from Chelsea – before someone pointed out the gaffe and Robinho was forced to correct himself – Manchester, not Chelsea.
The mistake made a lot of people – Pele included – suspect that Robinho’s move was motivated purely by the money on offer, and while City have since gone on to a lot of success due to that money, the nouveau riche image that Robinho’s gaffe presented with them has never really gone away.
#3 John Terry to Aston Villa, 2017
This was another recent one and unfortunately, it was another contender for the most cringe-worthy unveiling of all time. It was no surprise when Chelsea’s longtime captain John Terry – out of contract at the end of 2016/17 – signed with Aston Villa as the Midlands club had been considering the signing for a number of weeks. And it was no surprise that the club announced the signing over social media, as it’s obviously the most popular way to do things these days.
The big surprise was the ridiculous way in which they did it. A video was posted to Villa’s Twitter page with a mock-up WhatsApp group chat – relevant to the time period at least – between Villa’s chairman Dr Tony Xia, manager Steve Bruce, and a handful of Villa’s players.
The “chat” went on to show Xia reveal Terry as a Villa player, and the likes of Jack Grealish and James Chester welcome him to the club before Gabby Agbonlahor suggests he’s the “best defender the club’s ever had”, causing Villa legends Olof Mellberg, Martin Laursen and Paul McGrath to “leave the chat”.
The worst bit? A classic bit of Terry egotism as he asks “who’s got the #26 shirt?” before the chat shows Jonathan Kodija post some embarrassed smileys. It’d be a genuinely funny joke – except this part actually happened. Terry has of course been granted #26 by his new club and knowing him, it was probably something he demanded before joining the Championship team!
#2 Gokhan Inler to Napoli, 2011
And so we go from cheesy to just plain bizarre. Napoli had been linked with Udinese’s Swiss midfielder Gokhan Inler throughout the 2010/11 season, but it didn’t look like the deal would go through, with clubs such as Arsenal also supposedly in the race to sign him. Those doubting Napoli evidently didn’t take into account the sheer eccentricity of chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis – a film producer from a family full of them.
A presentation on a cruise ship – in itself pretty bizarre - was organised in July 2011, supposedly to launch Napoli’s new kit for the 2011/12 season, and more than a few eyebrows were raised when de Laurentiis called out a man in a lion mask to model the new shirt. Napoli’s mascot is, of course, a donkey, so the choice of the mask was strange, to begin with.
Suddenly though things went from strange to downright bizarre. The masked man stood next to the chairman before turning to reveal the number 88 – the squad number Inler had worn at Udinese – before pulling off the mask to reveal himself as the Swiss midfielder.
The stunt was like something straight out of WWE rather than football but seemed to fit Napoli’s eccentric image at the time. Inler ended up staying at the club for four seasons before a move to Leicester City – one that was announced in a much more conventional fashion!
#1 Antonio Rudiger to Chelsea, 2017
And the Kohinoor diamond of all the failed unveilings is arguably the most recent unveiling on the list, that of German defender Antonio Rudiger to Chelsea just days ago. The centre-back might not have been the summer’s highest profile signing, but apparently, Antonio Conte sees him as a key figure in Chelsea’s title defence. Unfortunately, his unveiling didn’t match his high reputation.
Rather than announce the signing via Twitter or the club’s official page, a cheesy mini-movie was instead used, featuring a man and his son visiting the Chelsea club shop. The father – seemingly playing a character somewhere between Will from the Inbetweeners and David Brent – asks his son which name he’d like on his shirt. The son replies “Rudiger” to which the father explains he hasn’t actually signed yet and suggests David Luiz or Eden Hazard instead.
Of course, the camera then pans away to show Rudiger in the back of the shop, posing in his new Chelsea shirt, revealing that he’s indeed signed for the Blues and of course the child can have his name on his shirt.
Good idea? Perhaps, but it was downright terrible in execution due to the contrived set-up and shoddy acting job on behalf of the guy playing the father and the girl at the shop – well let’s not talk about the German’s ability in front of the camera as well.
Why Chelsea couldn’t have just done a traditional unveiling is something we will never know. Maybe they wanted Rudiger to seem more high-profile? Who knows! They seem to have learned their lesson though as their latest signing Tiemoue Bakayoko was simply posed in the club shirt with a Chelsea ball.
#2 Gokhan Inler to Napoli, 2011
And so we go from cheesy to just plain bizarre. Napoli had been linked with Udinese’s Swiss midfielder Gokhan Inler throughout the 2010/11, but it didn’t look like the deal would go through, with clubs such as Arsenal also supposedly in the race to sign him. Those doubting Napoli evidently didn’t take into account the sheer eccentricity of chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis – a film producer from a family full of them.
A presentation on a cruise ship – in itself pretty bizarre - was organised in July 2011, supposedly to launch Napoli’s new kit for the 2011/12 season, and more than a few eyebrows were raised when de Laurentiis called out a man in a lion mask to model the new shirt. Napoli’s mascot is of course a donkey, so the choice of mask was strange to begin with.
Suddenly though things went from strange to downright bizarre. The masked man stood next to the chairman before turning to reveal the number 88 – the squad number Inler had worn at Udinese – before pulling off the mask to reveal himself as the Swiss midfielder.
The stunt was like something straight out of WWE rather than football, but seemed to fit Napoli’s eccentric image at the time. Inler ended up staying at the club for four seasons before a move to Leicester City – one that was announced in a much more conventional fashion!
