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Mikel Arteta has been brutally mocked by football fans for his attempt to prepare his Arsenal side for the upcoming Premier League season.  The Gunners have fallen agonisingly short of their goal to win the English top-flight in each of the last two seasons, while their return to the Champions League also ended in disappointment.  Arsenal go into the upcoming campaign as one of the favourites once more and it appears Arteta is leaving no stone unturned in his aim to get his team over the line.  As revealed in The Athletic, Arteta secretly hired a team of professional pickpockets tasked with taking phones and wallets during a dinner with his first-team squad.  At the end of the meal, the Spaniard asked players to empty their pockets. Several then realised they were missing valuable items. This exercise was supposedly done to teach them of the importance of being alert at all times.  It's unclear how well the stunt went down with the Gunners players that night but fans have reacted r

Agents have accused clubs of double-standards over two of the biggest deals this summer, with pressure piled on players to move to a different club before the end of their contract. Conor Gallagher has agreed a move to Atletico Madrid in Spain after it was made clear he risked being left out of the first-team squad if he did not sign a new deal, with a year remaining on his existing terms. Manchester United’s Leny Yoro, meanwhile, moved from Lille after the French club’s president described the youngster as having an “exit voucher” this summer due being in the last year of his contract. That effectively ruled out waiting for a dream move to Real Madrid in one year. Several intermediaries have spoken to Telegraph Sport over the power being in the hands of clubs when it comes to keeping and selling players even when they are tied to contracts. One leading agent said: “Everyone is brought up to honour contracts and when a players signs a deal they intend to see it through. “But clubs are