Arsenal Sign Lacazette, Make Him Hold Up Shirt He's Already Wearing

Arsenal announced today the long-awaited signing of Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette for a club-record fee somewhere in the neighborhood of £50 million. These days, official signing announcements—sometimes referred to as "unveilings"—are something of a social media event. Just last week, for example, Roma announced signing Lorenzo Pellegrini with a video using the FIFA video game.

So how would Arsenal announce Lacazette? First, they created the hashtag #LacaNewSigning, a pun on the phrase "Like A New Signing," which manager Arsene Wenger used when referring to players returning from injury during the time Arsenal never signed anyone.

Second, they made Lacazette hold up a shirt he's already wearing.

This was first brought to my attention by my VICE Sports UK colleague Jim Weeks and I honestly haven't been able to stop thinking about it for hours. Why is Lacazette holding up a shirt he's already wearing? Why isn't he holding up the back so we can see his name and number? If it's the same shirt, why does he have to hold it at all? Why not just stand there with his arms folded or something? Why is he holding up a shirt he's already wearing?!

I don't have any answers for you. All I can do is point out that Arsenal managed to spend £50 million on a new goal-scorer but nobody thought to give him a shirt to hold up that is in any way different from the one on his body.

Arsenal finished 5th in the English Premier League last season and will not play in the Champions League for the first time since 1996.