NEW SIGNING: The evolution of the media landscape through transfer deadline day

You can trace the evolution of the media landscape through the medium of transfer deadline day.

As a Stoke City supporter, I’ve a love-hate relationship with this day of hype, cameras at training grounds and whooshing graphics.

Yet, once it was all so simple. The transfer window didn’t slam shut at midnight. In fact, not only did it not exist there was not even the internet. 

But how did I get my updates on my football club? It evolved over time and started at the paper shop. 

The 1980s

The Evening newspaper. Growing up in Stafford, one of the few places to find out what Stoke City was doing was the Evening Sentinel. This, boys and girls, was printed on paper and I had to cycle to a shop and pay 26 pence to the person in the shop to take it away and read it. It was a physical copy.

Sports news was on the backpage while other news was on the front. Occasionally, they would swap over. A signing was only confirmed when they were pictured holding a scarf above their heads.

This is what AI thinks it looked like.

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would have signed anyone.

BBC Local radio. Living in Stafford, I’d get BBC Radio Stoke. You had to make a point of listening on the hour and sitting through news of tailbacks on the A500 before you got the sport. 

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would even be mentioned. 

The premium rate phone service. The 0898 phone number came about after BT liberalised phone numbers. In central London, phone boxes became covered in 0898 numbers promising adult services. Not wishing to missout ClubCall was set up in 1986. This allowed fans to ring a premium rate service to find out news about their club.

The Stoke City ClubCall was an exercise in making a little go a long way. A basic piece of information would be spun out into 40 or 50 seconds. 

There was still no guarantee of Stoke City signing anyone. 

Ceefax. This was the internet of its day. It got delivered through the television set and you punched in numbers to find out what the news was. Because Stoke City was not a big club you had to turn to page 312 on the service. This was the catch-all for most of the Football League as football used to be called. However, there was often many sub-pages to get through and it was not unusual to have to read it for five minutes while you scanned every page. 

There was still no guarantee Stoke would sign anyone.

This is what AI thinks that looked like.

The 1990s 

The supporters’ messageboard. Early social media was messageboards. A fan could start a public topic and then others could contribute. To me this was revolutionary. Instead of the odd paragraph on Ceefax I was now getting ALL the hot news. It took me a while to work out I was getting ALL the misinformation and ALL the arguments when Gudjon Thordarson got sacked.

Once, ‘I’ve seen Lee Trundle looking for houses in Trentham’ was the cue to think the Swansea striker was about to sign. Very soon, I realised that the internet could actually lie. The Oatcake messageboard in its pomp was a truly wonderful place.

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would sign Lee Trundle.

Signings were celebrated with hackneyed local news poses. When Sheffield Wednesday swooped – it was always swooped – for Italian duo Benito Carbone and Paulo di Canio the photographer from the Sheffield Star brought along an uncooked pizza as a prop. Italians signing, see? 

Amazingly, the pair agreed to be photographed.

You can Google the original. It is owned by Getty who are notorious litigious. Here is an AI impression of what that photograph looks like.

The 2000s

Newspaper websites. While the internet was invented in the 1990s, it took deep into the 200s before the club pages became worth paying attention to. Overnight it became pointless in paying to buy a newspaper when it was all online for free.

The Sky Sports transfer deadline day coverage. This started in 2003. For a news channel with 24-hours to fill deadline day was a God-send. Send reporters to the training grounds of the big clubs, have Jim White in the studio. 

However, when fans of one club placed a marital aid into the ear of Sky Sports News reporter Alan Irvine in one live broadcast steps were taken to sanitise the event. 

There was no guarantee Stoke City would be featured.

The 2010s

Fans with Twitter accounts. Enter social media, where respected fans with Twitter would supply the breaking news. Newspapers had turned into news brands and would operate on Facebook as well as Twitter. Eventually, clubs would catch-up.

Club websites. Forget, Ceefax. The breaking news is now only confirmed on the club website the final arbiter of fact.

The signing big reveal video. Forget the shot of the new signing in front of the Boothen End with the scarf above his head. It’s now the Big Reveal video. So, when German midfielder Wouter Burger signed the video was staged in a cafe where the dish of the day was a… Wouter Burger. I do see what they did there. 

The 2020s

Now , the football reporter must be a self-facilitating media node. The local news title’s football correspondent is a blogger, reporter, live streamer, tweeter and WhatsApper. Reach plc’s coverage of Stoke City – which is excellent – has a WhatsApp group, website and Facebook page. 

There is still no guarantee of Stoke City signing anyone. 

The club as media organisation. Most football clubs want to announce the news and give the first interview themselves. Fine when you are winning but not so good when you are bottom of the table. Some clubs charge for the chance to hear the manager paraphrase: ‘We’ll take the positives. We go again.’

Conclusion 

In the olden days, we were once thinly served badly with print but the information was generally accurate.

Now we can get information and comment when we want it. The veracity of that is a different thing. For me as a football fan, the trusted source is the club website and the local paper – sorry, news brand – is the benchmark.