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Premier League’s kings of transfers: Barbie, Teletubbies, WWE

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Premier League’s kings of transfers: Barbie, Teletubbies, WWE

  • Chris Wright, Toe Poke writerAug 30, 2023, 10:31 AM

As you may have noticed, Burnley have carved themselves a niche as the unlikely darlings of the transfer reveal video after amassing a vast repertoire of entertaining clips to welcome new faces to Turf Moor in recent months.

In fact, the Premier League club’s back catalogue now covers several years after their first mainstream hit: an amusing video to announce the arrival of Peter Crouch in February 2019.

Since then, the Clarets’ ever-creative media department have spent every summer and winter transfer window drumming up an endless array of wacky sketches in order to reveal the club’s latest transfers using Hollywood movies, professional wrestling, “The Simpsons,” assorted game shows and even the “Teletubbies.”

Even by their own high standards, Burnley outdid themselves last week while unveiling the signing of Aaron Ramsey (not that one) from Aston Villa with a “Barbie”-themed video that featured Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

Seamlessly embedded within a clip from the new Greta Gerwig movie, the England youth international popped up to say “Hi Burnley … I mean Barbie … up the Clarets!”

Just days before, Belgium international defender Hannes Delcroix was deployed as Harry the Hunter (aka the “shrunken head guy”) from “Beetlejuice” to rubber stamp his transfer to Turf Moor.

This was after French winger Wilson Odobert arrived from Troyes, pending the approval of Pam from “The Office.”

The Clarets also enjoyed viral success in July when they rolled out a bizarre 50-second “Teletubbies” video to welcome Swiss international Zeki Amdouni to the club.

The clip began with a loudspeaker asking “Who are Burnley signing today?” only for an image of Amdouni to appear on the screen embedded in Tinky Winky’s tummy. The 22-year-old forward then waved “Eh-oh” to the “Teletubbies,” who all waved back.

With some of the oddest transfer unveiling videos on record, the “Barbie” and “Teletubbies” clips are just the latest additions to Burnley’s weird and wonderful collection.

Crouch was welcomed aboard with a robot video, referencing to the striker’s trademark goal celebration…

“Jurassic Park” was used as inspiration to flag the arrival of Brontosaurus-like Dutch striker Wout Weghorst in January 2022…

The second wave of Burnley reveals then kicked off in July 2022 with a WWE-themed video to announce the arrival of Samuel Bastien from Standard Liege…

The overwhelming popularity of the wrestling video forced Burnley to rethink the manner in which they prepared their transfer reveals as the club started to stockpile potential clips and ideas for future use.

“WWE blew it all up and we set a bit of a bar so we do plan them 1693442371,” Burnley social media manager Rebecca Stubbs said. “We have a few in the pipeline to use for whoever.”

The pipeline was put under immediate stress as Burnley began their summer recruitment by bringing in two players from Manchester City on the first day of July last year — the first being CJ Egan-Riley and the second being Taylor Harwood-Bellis, whose loan deal was accompanied by a “Stranger Things” video that saw the youngster’s initials spelled out by blinking lights.

Republic of Ireland international Josh Cullen then followed with a slightly daft video that saw the midfielder emerge from 10 Downing Street as Larry the Cat, the British prime minister’s famous feline house guest, watched on.

Just a few days later, Ian Maatsen was treated to a special welcome fanfare from an entire choir of “Minions.”

A vintage “Simpsons” clip was then repurposed to herald the arrival of goalkeeper Aro Muric, who demonstrated his distribution by hoofing a football into Hans Moleman’s groin.

Vitinho then became the first ever Brazilian player to sign for Burnley, so the social media team got their heads together and cooked up a “Friends” sketch and allowed the full-back to guest star to make him feel at home in front of a live studio audience.

Another classic sitcom was cherry-picked for Benson Manuel, who received the “Fawlty Towers” treatment.

With no signs of the well running dry, Nathan Tella’s arrival at Turf Moor was announced with a short video based on British show “The Generation Game,” specifically the iconic segment where contestants had to memorise a series of (largely underwhelming) prizes that passed before their eyes on a conveyor belt.

Presumably prompted by the first syllable of his name, Darko Churlinov was revealed with a clip of British television staple “Most Haunted” and a good old fashioned ghost hunt.

The signing of Anass Zaroury from Belgian side Charleroi was marked with a repurposing of the infamous business card scene from “American Psycho.”

Burnley’s 2022 summer transfer activity was then rounded off when Halil Dervisoglu came to Turf Moor on loan from Sheffield United along with a “Sixth Sense”-themed video that involved the reworked tagline “I see new signings.”

January really saw the Clarets begin to hit their stride with the social media department even teasing fans with the promise of new transfer reveal videos before a single signing was made.

Sure enough, that vast stockpile was put to good use beginning with a “Toy Story” clip to signal the Clarets’ deal for Ameen Al Dakhil.

Day 21 of the transfer window saw “Big Brother” used to announce the signing of Albin Ekdal with an assist from the show’s presenter Davina McCall.

Just a few days later, a “Shrek” promo was produced to reveal the signing of South African striker Lyle Foster which went viral to the point that it actually ended up earning the approval of Universal Pictures.

With transfers coming thick and fast, British sitcom “Gavin and Stacey” was used as the inspiration for Michael Obafemi’s reveal video as the Republic of Ireland international ran the rule over Smithy’s rap chops.

May saw Jordan Beyer turn up at Turf Moor for a second time after completing a permanent move from Borussia Monchengladbach, which was announced with a clip centred around game show “Deal or No Deal.”

Moving into June, Dara O’Shea’s transfer from West Brom was heralded with a throwback to the “Scary Movie” franchise and a glimpse at the Republic of Ireland defender’s comic timing.

The following month, young goalkeeper James Trafford was sent back in time with a little help from Marty McFly, Doc Brown and their flux capacitor from “Back to the Future.”

The Clarets then enjoyed another monster hit when they revealed their deal for Premier League stalwart Nathan Redmond had been completed with a brilliant video based on the Backstreet Boys acapella scene from “Brooklyn 911.”

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