The lengthy negotiations, medical and unveiling photoshoot might all be intimidating moments but there is surely no more traumatising experience when you transfer from one team to another than the initiation song.
Particularly when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is pointing a camera phone straight at you, ready to post your nervy attempts to his 7.2 million Instagram followers.
But that was what a cadre of new Arsenal signings – and a few familiar faces – had to face when they underwent their initiations into the Gunners squad in Singapore.
It would be fair to say that Bernd Leno did not set the stage alight as he performed something, perhaps a song, in German, tentatively reading the lyrics of his mobile phone.
In Pictures | New Arsenal third kit 2018-19
Alexandre Lacazette tried desperately to surpress a laugh, more effectively than Aubameyang, who could be heard chuckling heartily.
Leno’s performance set the stage for a string of X Factor reject standard performances, with new signing Matteo Guendouzi hitting all the wrong notes. Petr Cech was reluctant to see the spotlight shine on him before he finally unleashed a reluctant freestyle rap.
It was left to young defender Jordi Osei-Tutu to steal the show with bars that put Cech to shame, with Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles joining in with their team-mate’s performance.
Watch the full video above
