Move over Ricky Gervais, it’s Keith Wyness.
Aston Villa’s content team confirmed the arrival of new striker Lewis Grabban in January 2018 via a conversation between Wyness and Alexa, as the CEO told Amazon’s intelligent personal assistant to alter her club choice after the capture of the Bournemouth forward.
It was night time and the Villa Park corridors were scarce, but one man remained hard at work in his office on Deadline Day.
Wyness, after seeing a Twitter stir surrounding Grabban and a potential move to Cardiff City, decided to ask Alexa who the striker now represented.
Watch above as Alexa re-corrected her initial mistake to make the CEO a very happy man.
It was in keeping with previous ‘disruptive’ transfer announcements, such as John Terry, Andre Moreira and Yannick Bolasie that aimed to keep the club in the spotlight, despite dropping down to the Championship.
Supporters gave this one a big thumbs up, with one fan tweeting: “The Alexa/Grabban skit was a piece of solid gold comic irony. Poorly acted. Loved it. Move over Gervais!”
Wyness was only too happy to be involved: “We thought we’d have a bit of fun with the announcement and I’m delighted that fans enjoyed it.“Our supporters took it in the way it was meant – a bit of light humour and I was certainly amused reading the replies.
“All that’s left is my Oscar nomination. I will make sure to check the post!”
Paul Brown 