Christos Tzolis is officially a new Arsenal player.
After reaching a £34 million agreement with Club Brugge over a week ago, the Gunners completed all the formalities and announced the signing on Thursday.
Mikel Arteta must have been frustrated with the lack of activity behind the scenes, but he hasn’t lost his sense of humour.
That was on display just before Tzolis put pen to paper on his Arsenal contract in front of the cameras.
Give us your wildest Christos Tzolis prediction for his debut season at Arsenal👀
Mikel Arteta’s funny ‘no way back’ warning to new Arsenal signing Christos Tzolis
Christos Tzolis wanted to join Arsenal from the minute he heard about their interest.
The Greek international had interest from elsewhere, but as soon as he was told about the interest from the Premier League champions, he made up his mind.
On Thursday, Tzolis’ dream came true, and he was presented in front of the world as a new Arsenal player.
Before sitting down with Arteta and Andrea Berta to pose for pictures, the winger had to sign his contract in front of the cameras.
Just as he was about to do that, his new manager issued a funny warning, and that was recorded in the behind-the-scenes video released by Arsenal on their website.
“Think about it before you sign. After that, there’s no way back,” Arteta joked. Tzolis responded with nervous laughter.
That is clearly a joke, but Tzolis will realise soon enough that Arteta is more demanding than any manager he has worked with before.
It will be interesting to see how he will respond to those demands.
How many goals and assists will Christos Tzolis end his debut season at Arsenal with?
He scored 22 goals and provided 29 assists last season👀
Christos Tzolis will have a chance to stake his claim before Arsenal sign another left-winger
Tzolis has been brought in to replace Leandro Trossard this summer, but Arsenal are still looking to sign another winger.
The Morgan Rogers dream is over, but someone like Bradley Barcola is still available and could become the top target soon.
Tzolis, however, will have a head start in pre-season training, and the fact that he is already in shape, having trained with Brugge for a few weeks now, gives him an edge.
If the Greek international uses that to his advantage and has an excellent pre-season, he may start the new campaign as the first choice, irrespective of who comes in.
We’re sure he will be hoping to do just that in the coming weeks.
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