It’s now officially football’s silly season.

No live action and no more World Cup means that attention turns to transfers for football fans.

So far, though, we’ve had nothing like the deluge of attempts at comedy that we saw last year. Few parody transfer videos have made their way to our newsfeeds and when they have they’ve more or less stood out like a sore thumb.

Even the biggest transfer of the window so far (and can it really be beaten by any others?) was a low-key affair in many ways: Juventus’s capture of Cristiano Ronaldo raised eyebrows, but it took days for the man himself to even tweet about it. A strange move when you think about the heft the Portuguese star’s accounts carry, but perhaps a smart one when you think of the anticipation it built.

In terms of reveal videos so far this summer, look no further than West Ham United.

We’ve already covered their social media work on the announcements of Jack Wilshere’s move from Arsenal and, earlier in the summer, the video confirming that Lukasz Fabianski had moved from Swansea to East London. This week they’ve perhaps outdone themselves again with a video to welcome club record signing Feline Anderson to the club.

We've got #ThatFelipeFeeling! pic.twitter.com/QbaxJI3ZP5

— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) July 15, 2018

Somehow, the Hammers have managed to make East London look like the Brazilian favelas with a great effort. It’s unclear just how at-home Anderson will feel once the London winter wades in, but for now he’s feeling the love – enough to even set the old West Ham crest as his cover photo!

West Ham have been one of the busiest clubs this transfer window, but by contrast Chelsea have been fairly inactive since the end of the season, springing to life in the last few days by appointing manager Maurizio Sarri and signing his former Napoli midfielder Jorginho too.

Jorginho is a Blue! ????#WelcomeJorginho pic.twitter.com/Uwh5h3gecx

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 14, 2018

Elsewhere this window, AS Roma are never far from the party when it comes to transfer announcements. This summer, they’ve been quieter than last as the parody video died a death, but they’ve remained their avant-garde selves this summer with some interesting efforts.

When Bryan Cristante signed from Atalanta earlier in the window, Roma’s rudimentary photoshop job showed their contempt for the medium.

OFFICIAL ???? Bryan Cristante is an #ASRoma player!

The Italian international midfielder becomes our third signing of the summer! ✍️???????? pic.twitter.com/VvH6OtRhhB

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) June 8, 2018

Since then, they’ve been able to reuse the template, just putting new signings’ faces on the same image and adding layer after layer of parody onto the initial image.

Summer signing number… ????
Photoshop skills… ????

Welcome to #ASRoma, Daniel Fuzato! ???? pic.twitter.com/SLC1jujU3U

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) July 9, 2018

Others still have been doing something different this summer. The trend seems to be toning down the sorts of videos that characterised last summer: still creating something unique, but doing it in a much more understated way.

These, from French giants Saint-Etienne and their old rivals Liverpool, looked like good efforts in different ways.

⏳➡✅ pic.twitter.com/6Jl73p8BV1

— AS Saint-Etienne (@ASSEofficiel) July 17, 2018

????#XS23 pic.twitter.com/HhnFVBAoJy

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 13, 2018

That hasn’t been the approach of everyone, though. This week Barcelona announced that their social media accounts had the most engagements of any other football club. Many clubs – and, crucially, sponsors – are starting to ask themselves whether such things are just vanity metrics. But maybe when you’re as big as Barcelona you can argue your fanbase is engaged in pretty much everything you do

This summer, their signing of defender Clement Lenglet raised a few eyebrows thanks to the accompanying video.

???? Bienvenue @clement_lenglet!
???????? Welcome to Barça!
⚽️ #EnjoyLenglet
???? #EnjoyBarça pic.twitter.com/NS0IFa7KwJ

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 12, 2018

Whilst other clubs – notably West Ham and Chelsea – look for the more subtle approach to keep their creativity within certain boundaries, Barcelona tried something a bit more outlandish. Maybe this year we’ve moved on from last summer’s creativeness.