3. The ‘do a signing’ brigade
A football club announces a new commercial partner, and underneath somebody complains that it isn’t a left-back. An academy player signs his first professional contract, and the response is that he isn’t the senior player we’ve been linked with.
Then three days pass without a transfer announcement and out comes the stick figure poking the club with a stick. “Do something.” Apparently, the recruitment department has forgotten what it’s there for and needs prompting by a meme.
The best part is that an actual signing rarely satisfies the demand. The announcement goes out at six, and by five past somebody is asking for another one. We haven’t seen the first player hold the scarf from every available angle before attention turns to who might be next.
Then comes the assessment. A quick look at Wikipedia, a glance at the goals column and a declaration that the new arrival is underwhelming, regardless of his position, the role he’s been recruited for or anything the club might know about him.
I’d love to compare the instant verdicts with what those players eventually achieved. I suspect quite a few supposedly underwhelming arrivals have contributed far more than signings greeted as proof we were definitely going up.
Of course transfers are exciting. I write about them, read about them and want to know who’s coming in, but there is something exhausting about treating recruitment as a constant demand for entertainment. Sign somebody in the morning and, by tea time, the novelty has worn off.
A club can be doing plenty of useful work without producing something for you to refresh your phone at.
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