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Southampton have mocked the recent trend of dramatic new signing announcements by releasing a theatrical trailer for reserve goalkeeper Stuart Taylor’s one-year contract extension.
The elaborate new signing announcement is football’s latest trend, with teams from the Premier League and around Europe producing extravagant videos to unveil their latest acquisitions.
Liverpool announced Mohamed Salah’s arrival by posting a video of the Egyptian scrolling through a twitter account filled with ‘ANNOUNCE SALAH NOW’ tweets, while Roma unveiled Lorenzo Pellegrini with footage of the midfielder playing as himself on FIFA.
And Southampton have provided a satirical response to the fad, by announcing the fairly low key news that Taylor has signed a new contract, with a dramatic video akin to a film trailer.
The trailer begins with the message: ‘Here it is… another unnecessarily elaborate football club signing video’ as it cuts to clips of helicopters and boats approaching Southampton’s St Mary’s ground, accompanied by a thumping drum beat.
Negative film reviews then flash to screen, slamming the plot for being ‘needlessly over-complicated’ and demanding the club ‘just announce the f * signing’.
Armed officials are shown preparing to storm into an undisclosed location and a series of close up shots of an unidentified man build the tension.
Poking fun at Salah’s announcement, a series of tweets urging Saints to ‘announce Taylor’ spin onto screen as the trailer reaches it’s conclusion… before it cuts to an anticlimactic shot of Taylor relaxing on a sun lounger.
And finally Taylor turns to face the camera and raises his cup of tea, before a message flashes up on screen confirming his new one-year deal - the video is accompanied by the cheeky caption ‘Are we doing this right?’.
In a more routine press release, Taylor told the club’s official website: ‘It’s a great bunch of lads and a great group, and I’m looking forward to working again with a great goalkeeper coach and a great squad of goalkeepers.’
The 36-year-old has spent the majority of his career as a back-up goalkeeper and will continue to deputise at Southampton next season, behind No 1 Fraser Forster as well as reserve stoppers Alex McCarthy and Paulo Gazzaniga.
Taylor joined the Saints in August 2016 after a year without a club following his release from Championship side Leeds.
The goalkeeper previously had permanent spells with Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Reading, in addition to a series of loan moves.
He has never made more than 18 league appearances at a single team - in total he has made 95 appearance in all competitions across his 20-year career.
Taylor, who came through the academy at Arsenal, has yet to make a competitive appearance for Southampton.
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