We wrote ten days ago that this season would be talked about for a long time either way. We can stop hedging now. Arsenal are champions of England.
The first Premier League title since the Invincibles of 2003-04. A 22-year wait, closed. Three runners-up finishes in a row, finally answered. And somewhere in north London, a manager who has spent half a decade absorbing near-misses gets to lift the only trophy that ever silenced the question.
What just happened to this squad's memorabilia
When a side wins a title, the items tied to that group of players stop being "current squad" pieces and become historical artefacts of the club. That is not a marketing line — it is how the market actually behaves. The pricing curve for a 2003-04 Invincibles shirt does not look like the pricing curve for a 2002-03 shirt, even though they sat on the same shelf in the same shop.
A few things shift the moment a trophy is lifted:
- Signed pieces from this squad become fixed points in the story. Signed shirts from these players, framed signed photographs of this group — those carry a different weight from this week onward.
- Player-specific items revalue. A Rice shirt from the season he won his first league title is not the same object it was on Sunday morning. Same fabric. Different history.
- Anything signed before the trophy was lifted becomes scarcer by definition. Pre-title signatures from a title-winning squad are a closed set. Nobody is adding to that pool.
What collectors actually do now
Here is how we would think about building a collection from this squad:
- Player selection compounds. Not every member of a title-winning squad ages the same way in the collectibles market. Spine players — the goalkeeper, the central defenders, the controlling midfielder, the star forward — historically hold value better than rotation pieces.
- The window is already closing. Items signed by these players before the trophy was lifted are now a closed set — that pool stops growing from here. Signed pieces from this group are the historical artefacts of this era. The catalogue from this squad is what people will be referring back to in 2046.
And the Champions League?
Still in play. Still unwon. If Arsenal complete the double, everything in this letter applies again — louder, and with one important addition: a first-ever Champions League trophy turns this squad from "league champions" into "the squad that ended two waits at once." That is a once-in-a-club's-history category.
For now: congratulations to the red half of north London. The film ended differently this time.
— The Celebrity VIP Art team