'Announce the signing!' Why transfers do not always come when fans want them

At this time of year fans – some fans, at least – are scouring the media (social and traditional), club websites, podcasts, even airport arrivals for news or just hints of who their club is going to be signing.

False alarms are not unusual. Last week Newcastle United's Kieran Trippier being spotted in an airport was taken as a sign he was joining the Saudi Pro League.

Journalists and social media gossips can jump the gun, declaring signing "over the line", "nailed on", "done and dusted" long before the puff of white smoke.

Last week Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony pulled the curtain back a touch, tweeting about Harrison Burrows: "We accepted formal bid Sunday, player passed medical Wednesday, signed long-term deal, we signed our forms and now down to buying club to submit/announce formally."

That wait went on until Saturday morning when Sheffield United admitted that, as most suspected, they had signed the left-back in a deal MacAnthony later claimed could be worth more than Ivan Toney's £10m move to Brentford if all the proposed add-ons pay out.

So why the delay in announcing?

As Hull City's content manager, Ben Towse had no involvement in that deal but knows the processes.

"Usually the buying club will lead the timings," says Towse, back at the club he used to work for as a social media executive following three years in Formula One. "It doesn't always work for the selling club but there's usually a bit of give and take.

"With Cody (Drameh), we signed him on the day we played Doncaster and he was going to be travelling with the squad so realistically he was going to be seen in Hull City kit. We wanted to get it out before that.

"And although Cody was a free agent we still gave Leeds (his previous club) the courtesy of knowing when we were going live in case they had any follow-up comms they wanted to do.

"Our press officer leads that conversation and our head of marketing will be involved, asking us what time we think is best. I will look at our schedule and say when is the best time to optimise it.

"We were told about two or three o'clock the previous day he was going to be coming in at 11am. There's not an awful lot of time to react.

"A lot of the time we find out by looking at social media. People tend to find out a lot earlier than we do. Not every rumour comes true but it does give you a bit of an indication of what we're trying to do. I always find that quite useful.

"I'll have a plan written up so we can go ahead and execute it in priority order depending how much time we've got with the player.

"We work out what we want to do with the player, if there's anything special, anything distinguishable with the player we want to use.

"Typically the player will come to the stadium so we're kind of stuck with the same shots. How do we make it different or give it a style that you know it's signing imagery? We'll have some sort of video and interview as well.

"Deadline day is a bit of a different beast. The closer you get to it, the more players you tend to get linked with and sometimes there are a lot of players coming on deadline day.

"I've had some where we didn't have time to speak to anyone. They didn't actually come to the training ground so we got no content and our graphics were led by existing imagery of them at other clubs."

Stopping the news leaking early is also a concern.

"It can happen," he says. "There are always people across the news a lot quicker than anybody else is, there's nothing you can do about it.

"It can be quite frustrating because you want to have that hype around an announcement but if you're bringing in players people are normally excited about it anyway.

"We're always careful when we've got players in the stadium because there are places where people can look in and they do just go for walks around the stadium.

"But it's good the fans are excited to see what players are coming in."

And until everything is official, there is fending off impatient and sometimes frustrated supporters. Hull have a lot of transfer business still to do in the next month.

"That can be quite a tricky thing to deal with," Towse admits. "Sometimes we'll know what's happening and we just want to say, 'Be patient, hold on!'

"Every fan wants their team to bring in the best players they can and ours are no different. They're very vocal on social media and definitely let us know when they want something announcing!

“We want fans to engage with us, on our social media engaged in constructive dialogue.

"You just want to be doing the best job you can and you want the fans to appreciate that and to be enjoying it as well. They just want what's best for the club and we understand that."