Morning folks and welcome to Sunday. We have ourselves a new signing!

Ok, so we already knew all about it because of today’s information age, but it’s still nice when it is announced and you see the player himself in an Arsenal shirt declaring that he loves watching ‘The Smith’ in this current Arsenal team.

Nuno Tavares also speaks pretty good English. Well, enough to get by I’d wager, as he was about to answer questions from the club reporter and give his thoughts on the signing. That’ll come in handy for when the now confirmed Amazon Prime series is released towards the end of the season. We’ll be able to see him walking in to the manager’s office and demanding to know why he hasn’t played much, having been specifically told by Arteta and Edu that Kieran Tierney’s legs are made of balsa wood and that he’d probably get around 20 games.

The Amazon series itself feels like a bit of a curse though. Last season it was the Tiny Totts and they were a car crash, as well as Juventus who always seem to win the league in Serie A, yet finished fourth last season. So we’ve got invasive camera crews wandering around Colney and the Emirates recording the mad house that may we just be Arsenal Football Club. It is strange though. Arsenal have always been a very private club. The way in which we have done our business, the way in which insider info is attempted to keep to a minimum, it’s how Arsenal have liked to conduct themselves. Who can forget the “thank you for your interest in our affairs” from Peter Hill-Wood at an AGM a decade ago? That’s how Arsenal have historically gone about their business, so to have it laid bare in a docuseries from Amazon is a bit of a u-turn in approach.

It obviously has to do with the fact Arsenal need to raise cash any way they can and Amazon will have wafted a few notes in the direction of the club, to which the club has grabbed hold of at the first opportunity. It is a new revenue stream during a time in which Arsenal need the cash desperately, so I can kind of understand it.

I can also understand why Arteta would potentially have been ok with it. He was part of the coaching set up in 2017/18 when Man City won the league and the first ‘all or nothing’ documentary was recorded and then aired, so he’ll know just how invasive it is and he’ll know what it will entail. That is the hope I have anyway, i.e. that it won’t affect preparation for the upcoming season and that it won’t hamper the objectives of the team during the season. It is easy to understand how it could and become a bit of a circus/distraction and the last thing us Arsenal fans need right now is ANOTHER season of drama and mess. We want calm waters, we want a successful team, we want our manager to succeed. Anything like a docuseries potentially getting in the way of that will be a real worry I have to say.

If they’re starting to film now they might also get insight in to new signings – hopefully – because so far all is quiet on the western front. The same names are still in circulation so I won’t bore you by repeating them, but if the deals are done then the opportunity to see the tail-end of any transfer might be something that makes for better TV. Do you think we’ll watch as Edu jets off to Argentina to convince Messi that his next best career move is at The Arsenal? Nah, me either.

Anyway, it’s confirmed now and whilst the general consensus amongst people I follow is that it is probably something we could do without, I’ll certainly be watching it when the season draws to a close and the series is released. You can bet your bottom dollar on that one.

As for the other stuff happening today, well, we all know there is a certain cup final happening this evening and it’ll be England’s first proper opportunity to win a trophy by competing in a final for 55 years. That’s one heck of a wait and there’ll be a lot of nerves in that England dressing room. But as Argentina ended their 28 year wait for silverware with the winning of the Copa America last night against Brazil, maybe England will also overcome their legacy demons and lift the trophy. I’ll certainly be watching the game and whilst I was kind of hoping Saka would have a quiet Euro’s by not playing that much, I am now glad that he’s been such an integral cog. I hope he starts tonight because it would be great for him and gives us a bit of an Arsenal angle for which we can all get behind.

I think it’ll also do him the power of good in terms of improvement for next season. Like I said in a blog earlier this week, he’ll be walking a little taller, he’ll be looking around at his fellow pro’s and knowing he’s becoming the star, his confidence will be sky high and even if England lose tonight he can go back to Arsenal with his head up high and go in to next season ready to smash it up for The Arsenal. That would be a perfect scenario.

That’s pretty much it from me for today. Back tomorrow with some post-cup final thoughts on the game and any other Arsenal-related stuff that crops up during the day. Have a good one peeps.