Throughout their stay in the Premier League with Sean Dyche, Burnley made a name for themselves for being the league’s ‘Brexit team.’ Both the manager and the club seemed heavily motivated to bring footballers predominantly from the English Isles alone to play for the Clarets.
With an ideology similar to the Spanish side Athletic Bilbao which employs players born in the Basque region, Dyche’s team were known for their impressive organization and physical game that aided the club to stay in the top flight for six years in a row since 2016.
But with the departure of the Englishman and the club’s relegation to the Championship last season, it appears that the hierarchy have indeed agreed to embrace change. While the January transfer window saw the club going for a foreign striker in Wout Weghorst, Burnley have gone on to sign five more foreign nationals along with several other players from the UK to join them in the fight for promotion.
A big change in tactics for the Clarets which has also proven to be a great source of entertainment for football fans in general as Burnley have provided extremely creative videos along to announce the arrival of their new signings.
Following the transfer of Belgian international Samuel Bastien from Standard Liege in July, the club’s social media team designed a WWE-inspired announcement clip using classic footage involving Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson. A separate video of Bastien seems to have been edited into this to appear as if the player is making a grand WWE-style entrance that has shaken even the Rock.
Similarly, the club also impressed supporters with their quality announcement clips for another set of new faces in Belgian international Manuel Benson and Dutchman Ian Maatsen.
The Belgian’s video has been inspired by the 70s British sitcom Fawlty Towers (hence, Fawltry Moor) which explored the happenings in and around a fictional hotel in the UK. The show features a character Manuel who is a part of the staff at the hotel and it looks like Burnley connected that to Manuel Benson.
The English club are continuing on the same path and repeated the trick for the presentation video of hometown player Nathan Tella through a clip inspired by the popular BBC gameshow The Generation Game.
The 23-yeard-old came up through the ranks of Southampton’s academy before making his first team debut in 2020. But in search of more minutes, it looks like Tella has joined Burnley on a loan deal that expires at the end of the season.
Despite the Englishman’s arrival being on loan, the Championship side appears to have rolled out the red carpet to make him feel at home by using the actual footage from the English gameshow.
In its inception years, the game was hosted by British entertainer Bruce Forsyth in the 70s where it quickly became a popular show amongst the viewers of BBC programmes. This initial model of the game featured married couples playing amusing games to win prizes and goodies.
Footage featuring one such couple has been used by Burnley where they seem to be tasked with remembering a list of articles appearing before them. The edited clip, however, presents the couple looking at items familiar to present-day audiences such as a jar of Nutella, a cardboard cut-out of Nelson Mandela etc. all of which appear before the couple on a conveyor belt.
After an entire series of products with the ‘ella’ rhyme structure, the last entry is Burnley’s new midfielder Nathan Tella quite casually chilling on a sofa.
With the club having relaxed its policy of signing only UK-based players, perhaps Burnley will be an attractive destination for numerous talented youngsters such as Tella. Moreover, if every new signing will be rewarded with such exemplary announcement videos, then surely there will be a lot more arrivals at Turf Moor in the near future.
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