Running Out of Time, Arsenal’s Left Winger Search Funded by ‘Triple’ Sale

The Gunners started the summer with plans to upgrade and have only done half the job.

Mikel Arteta may not get a new left winger. | Marc Atkins/Getty Images

Arsenal are on course to end the summer transfer window with a triple sale of players surplus to requirements that would raise around $104 million (£77 million, €90 million).

Gabriel Martinelli is set to join Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia for the bulk of that money, with cheaper deals taking Gabriel Jesus to Barcelona and Fábio Vieira to Hamburg. None of the trio was expected to have a significant role for Mikel Arteta’s Gunners this season.

The Athletic reports an agreement with Al Hilal over Martinelli’s $81 million fee is now “close” to being finalized. A separate report reveals that a permanent deal for Vieira worth around $11.6 million is also now “close.” Gabriel Jesus is set to command a similar amount.

Martinelli, who turned down interest from Galatasaray before it was spelled out to him there is no place for him anymore, will break Arsenal’s player sale record that has stood for nine years. 

No transfer out of the Emirates Stadium has ever cost the buyer more than the $47.7 million (£35 million) Liverpool paid for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain almost a decade ago. In a market now full of player trading, failing to extract significant transfer fees through sales was a notable shortcoming. Meanwhile, the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City have perfected the art.

Given how little Jesus will cost Barcelona, it could be argued that it is still a problem. However, the Brazilian has been increasingly prone to injuries and is out of contract next summer. And even though the Martinelli deal will bring in enormous profit after he cost a nominal fee as a barely known teenager playing in Brazil’s lower leagues, Arsenal will take significant losses on both Jesus and Vieira, each bought for more than four times what they are leaving for.

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Potential Arsenal Left-Wing Targets Increasingly Limited

Vinícius Júnior decided he would rather stay at Real Madrid. | Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images

Coming into this summer, Arsenal wanted an elite left winger and still haven’t found one. Christos Tzolis has impressed as a starter in the early weeks of the season, but he was brought in specifically to upgrade Leandro Trossard. Martinelli’s departure for good money both creates the space and underlines the need for another replacement.

Time is precious because the transfer deadline hits on Tuesday at 11 p.m. BST (6 p.m. ET). Not only that, the options are thinning.

The Gunners wanted Morgan Rogers before he joined Chelsea to become the most expensive Englishman in history, then hoped Vinícius Júnior would leave Real Madrid until he signed a new contract. There has also been talk of Bradley Barcola, who chose Liverpool.

Arsenal only want players who can, in the words of CEO Richard Garlick, “change the dial” and improve a team that is already the best in England and one of the best in Europe. The pool of players capable of that is naturally small, made smaller still by the aforementioned rejections.

Tenuous links with Marcus Rashford are only getting weaker, with nothing substantial coming of apparent interest in Kenan Yıldız even before the Juventus winger recently underwent surgery on a metatarsal injury set to sideline him for “a few months.”

Arsenal could look to someone younger like Malick Fofana, particularly amid reports of financial strife potentially forcing Lyon to sell assets to both raise cash and lower their costs. It is more of a gamble, though. The alternative is not recruiting anyone at all and repurposing the versatile Eberechi Eze as a backup left winger, and for now leaving the promising Tzolis in the XI.

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