Roy Keane has ruthlessly mocked an unusual pre-season exercise deployed by Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
The Spaniard has been taking his players out for meals in restaurants in the weeks leading up to their first match against Wolves on Saturday but, as Gary Neville explains on The Overlap podcast, the trips have featured a nasty twist.
For Arteta has been hiring professional pickpocketers to scurry around the restaurant and pick on unsuspecting football stars, grabbing phones and car keys and other valuables while the sportsmen eat and chat.
All this is supposed to lead up to a great reveal where the Gunners manager can point out that his team's personal items have been stolen and that they really ought to pay more attention next time.
Or as Neville puts it: ' "Always stay alert" - that was the message he was sending.'
As Gary Neville explains on The Overlap podcast, pre-season restaurant trips for Arsenal have featured a nasty twist
But former Manchester United hard man Keane was less than impressed with the newfangled way of improving footballers' sharpness and made sure to tell his fellow pundits so.
He quipped: 'Oh right, they'll definitely win the league this year,' much to the amusement of Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Jill Scott.
Arsenal have had a busy pre-season on and off the pitch, signing Riccardo Calafiori and David Raya permanently and completing a tour of the US.
They are now believed to be considering a move for Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia as Aaron Ramsdale looks set for a transfer away from north London.
Garcia, 23, has played for Espanyol his whole career and could be set for the next step in joining up with last season's Premier League runners-up.
He has played 29 games for the Spanish club in total, but made just three LaLiga appearances. It's possible that Arsenal would look to buy another goalkeeper alongside Garcia were Ramsdale to leave.
In terms of outgoings, Emile Smith Rowe is the only senior player who has left permanently, joining Fulham for a £27million fee.
As for the football, Arteta said the Gunners' heavy pressing in pre-season means it 'looked like' his side are ready for the new campaign, Sky Sports reports.
The north London side battered German champions Bayer Leverkusen 4-1, scoring twice in a minute in their penultimate match before the new year.
Meanwhile Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly have excited fans at attacking midfield and inverted left-back respectively.
They won their final pre-season outing against Lyon 2-0 and will be hoping to beat rivals Manchester City to the title this year after being pipped to second two seasons in a row.