Arsenal have joined the list of Premier League clubs to link up with Amazon for a behind-the-scenes documentary, which will chart their progress during the 2021-22 season.
“All or Nothing: Arsenal” follows similar series produced at Manchester City and, in the 2019-20 season, Tottenham. The club said that, as well as following events around the Emirates Stadium and their London Colney training centre, it would “follow our squad away from the pitch to examine the daily challenges faced by elite athletes, the work we do in our local and global communities and what connects the Arsenal family and our special club”.
It is a marked departure from Arsenal’s usually tightly guarded approach to privacy and will add an extra level of scrutiny to the manager, Mikel Arteta, who is tasked with reversing a decline that saw them miss out on European football last season. Arteta does, though, have experience of working with a documentary crew: he was an assistant to Pep Guardiola at City during the 2017-18 season, when the first Premier League iteration of the series was filmed.
The series at Tottenham took in the departure of Mauricio Pochettino and appointment of José Mourinho. Pochettino had been against Spurs’ involvement in the documentary and Mourinho later admitted he had told Amazon not to capture any of his tactical work with the players. Spurs are believed to have received about £10m; the extent to which Arsenal, who need funds to help Arteta rebuild his squad, will benefit from next season’s arrangement is unclear.
Filming at Arsenal, whose players have started to return for pre-season, is expected to begin soon and the documentary will launch on Prime Video in 2022.
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Away from the cameras, for now at least, Arsenal are stepping up their transfer activity. They are expected to complete deals soon for the Benfica left-back Nuno Tavares and the Anderlecht midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga, although those moves may not go through in time for a training camp in Scotland that will see the team play Hibernian and Rangers.
Efforts are also being made to retain existing talent and talks are ongoing with Emile Smith Rowe,the subject of interest from Aston Villa. The highly rated winger Kido Taylor-Hart is close to agreeing a new contract after choosing to remain at Arsenal despite offers from overseas and elsewhere in England.