Gone are the days when a teletext headline would let you know who your football club had signed.
The immediacy of social media means that most supporters learn about done deals before Sky Sports can confirm with their “sources” and send a breaking news banner out into the world.
But clubs are no longer content to send out a basic “We are delighted to announce the signing of Joe Bloggs” with a link to a statement.
Now teams are getting creative.
Only last week, Arsenal revealed that they’d brought in Sead Kolasinac with the use of a quirky quiz on Twitter.
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 (@Arsenal) June 6, 2017
Liverpool’s social media team must have seen the traction that the above announcement got because they resorted to similar tactics to let Reds supporters know that Roma winger Mohamed Salah was moving to Anfield.
A video showing Salah scrolling through Twitter users’ posts asking for the club to “announce Salah now” appeared on Liverpool’s Twitter feed on Thursday night.
👋 pic.twitter.com/07r2UAKRdX
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 22, 2017
An official statement followed, in which the club announced that the 25-year-old had completed a medical and would officially join on July 1.
“I will give 100 per cent and give everything for the club. I really want to win something for this club,” Salah said of the transfer.
“We have a great team and very good players. I was watching the games last year and everyone was giving 100 per cent to win something.
“Everyone can see the coach gives everything. I hope to see that together we can give everything to win something for the club, for the supporters and for us.”
