AS Roma were known as the kings of the transfer video. As far as footballing social media goes, they’re arguably now just the kings of Twitter.

Last summer turned out to be a frenzied few months. There was no distraction of a World Cup and so the long dusty months became focused on transfers – and a race to the bottom in terms of how clubs could cover them.

Club after club attempted to build upon what Roma had started, only for the Italian giants to come back with another video that just went further and further each time.

A FIFA 17 video turned into a parody of Southampton’s epic announcement video – of third-choice goalkeeper Stuart Taylor (!) – which in turn descended into a baboon bashing a keyboard and a goat playing chess. Finally, the summer ended the football began.

But this year, Roma have been protagonists on and off the pitch. Their epic battles against Chelsea, Barcelona and Liverpool in this season’s Champions League put them front and centre, as did their link to Mohamed Salah – Liverpool’s talisman who has spent this year mostly picking up awards and breaking records.

Now that it’s transfer season once again, we were waiting for a Roma move.

Last year, we had to fall back on Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp to explain just what Roma were up to. They had turned the art form of the social media transfer announcement video back onto itself. With a twist of the mirror back into the face of football, they showed it just what it had become, and revealed the horror that truly lied within.

This year’s first Roma signing has now been announced: Ivan Marcano. And the club’s social media team have both expanded and reined-in their collective madness.

Welcome to #ASRoma, Ivan Marcano ???? pic.twitter.com/BUkLMZlDrO

— Eric jr (@Avic40117560) May 31, 2018

Expanded in the sense that the very first announcement came from “Avic400117560” – an unknown Twitter account whose out-of-the-blue announcement of Ivan Marcano to Roma just happened to be retweeted by the official AS Roma EN account. Dig a little deeper and you might well see a resemblance to another story in the news recently.

Bryan Colangelo, the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, made headlines as the alleged owner of a number of Twitter accounts which had been posting criticisms of many big figures in the game. One of the accounts in question was @AlVic40117560 – with the same display pic, too.

That was followed by the ‘official’ Roma announcement.

Official: Ivan Marcano has signed for #ASRoma
3⃣0⃣6⃣1⃣7⃣3⃣1⃣5⃣1⃣8⃣ pic.twitter.com/QTudY4RA7F

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) May 31, 2018

Was this, mercifully, the death of the transfer video. The frenzied, whirlwind life of the genre sprung into action last year, it was devoured and descended into farce. Early this year, has it simply passed away with this announcement? Simply a black screen and the cryptic numbers we now know to be the dates. The music in the background, the single beep of the heart monitor as the Roma transfer madness took its last breath.

All good things must come to an end at some point and what better way to bring down the curtain on our elaborate transfer announcement videos than with the ultimate transfer signing reveal? From June 30 2017 – Pellegrini – to May 31 2018 – Marcano – it's been fun. As it should be https://t.co/VVYvvNMwQE

— Paul Rogers (@PaulRogers73) May 31, 2018

And yet, you’d be mad to think that was the end of the craziness from this account.

Since then, the references have kept coming, so to have the hip-hop comments and the cheering on of Nigeria at the World Cup (presumably because of their amazing kits).

pic.twitter.com/YXI1MDQig7

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) June 1, 2018

The transfer videos have served their purpose. Roma is now known around the world and not just for their performances off the pitch, but for their style off it, too. Its been a crazy few months, and that only looks set to continue – just without the transfer video madness.