The media went football crazy on the final day of the transfer window, with Fernando Torres scoring the most mentions while Andy Carroll landed the most negative coverage

Supplied by Echo Sonar
 

Fernando Torres dominated the day's coverage after handing in a transfer request in the days leading up to the transfer deadline. Torres favoured a move to Chelsea which was completed at around 10.30pm. Torres's move was covered in unison with that of Andy Carroll, the (now former) Newcastle striker who completed a record £35m move to Liverpool and became the most expensive English player to move and the 8th most expensive in world history. Torres completed a £50m move from Liverpool to Chelsea and became the most expensive non-British transfer in England. Both Torres and Carroll were mentioned the most in coverage and this is reflected by the difference of 386 mentions that separates them, although Carroll attracted more negative press (19 per cent of his coverage was negative compared with 12 per cent of Fernando Torres’).

 

Supplied by Echo Sonar
 

Luis Suarez's transfer from Ajax of Holland to Liverpool was a more drawn-out process, with Suarez completing his move around mid-afternoon. Suarez received a higher volume of coverage than all other competitors in the morning, this playing to the notion of his earlier transfer completion.
 

Charlie Adam's future was that of much speculation during the transfer deadline as his club, Blackpool, would not play ball with Liverpool over a proposed move. After the completion of Carroll and Suarez, Liverpool were believed to have come back in for Adam, as did Tottenham Hotspur, but it was impossible to complete the move. It was believed that Adam had agreed in principle to join Tottenham but the paperwork could not be completed in time.
 

So why was there such a media frenzy over this? James McLoughlin, senior account executive at PR firm Fleishman-Hillard says it is because this is major news. He explains: “The transfer record between British clubs had been set by Rio Ferdinand’s move from Leeds to Manchester United in 2002, but suddenly this nine-year record was broken twice in a day. Both Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres were trending worldwide on Twitter, thereby demonstrating the public appetite for such stories: the frequency of coverage in the media is simply a reflection of this interest. 
 

“Think about conversations you have had over the last two weeks – how many times have the names Fernando Torres, Andy Carroll and Andy Gray come up compared to David Cameron and Ed Milliband, yet the front pages are almost exclusively dedicated to them. However, the media can still be alarmist. The Daily Express recently claimed that the ‘The world's gone mad and supporters just won’t buy it’, because a Liverpool attendance against Stoke City had dropped by a few thousand compared to average. However, Sporting Intelligence is predicting that Premiership attendances will still rise overall in the 2010/11 season, despite the harsh economic times we live in, therefore demonstrating the enthusiasm that the English still hold for the game.
 

Nicole Hudspith, account executive at PR agency Speed Communications, agrees that the transfer window is a gripping story, but thinks it attracts unnecessary hype that can lead to overkill in the media. She adds: “In general, as soon as the mid-season transfer window opens on 1 January, the price tag of a player is automatically inflated. However, the madness of the transfer window isn’t a true reflection of the football world and inevitably draws in a wide audience; some want to criticise, others want a piece of the excitement and others purely want to keep up-to-date with peers.
 

Hudspith says that the problem with the transfer window is that it can put many football clubs into a complete crisis as a consequence of rushed decision making. She gives Newcastle United as an example, as the club has been wowed by a £36-million deal for an unproven striker, but the club does not appear to have had a contingency plan as no alternative striker has been bought in.
 

However, Hudspith was still glued to the news, and says that if your club is involved in a big signing the rest of the season has increased potential. This leads her to conclude: “The need for rolling news and constant updates on possible transfers will remain for the foreseeable future, as well as the increased coverage around the transfer window.” 
 Methodology

 

Echo Sonar looked at all UK online sources to highlight share of voice and the tonality in the final day’s transfers regarding the four most talked about players. The research period was 31 January 2011 as the deadline for UK clubs was 11pm on this day.