Gabriel Martinelli Becomes the Latest to Lose Transfer Standoff With Mikel Arteta

Arsenal would be expected to replace Martinelli, but the pool of options is vanishingly shallow.

Mikel Arteta (left) and Gabriel Martinelli have eventually landed on the same page, it would appear. | Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

After Mikel Arteta made it abundantly and brutally clear how low Gabriel Martinelli found himself in Arsenal’s pecking order this season, the Brazilian is now “open” to a transfer away from the Premier League champions, multiple reports have claimed.

Martinelli occupies an intriguing position within the Arsenal hierarchy. It’s been three years since the Brazilian hit double digits for Premier League goals in a single season and large sections of the fanbase would accept that there are plenty of upgrades to be had in the transfer market. However, this endearing character who has so wholeheartedly embraced a club which has gone through its own struggles would elicit a teary goodbye from many.

Arteta has not given in to any unnecessary sentiment.

While accepting the “really, really tough” situation he currently finds himself in, Arsenal’s manager has acted defiantly by leaving Martinelli out of the club’s matchday squads for the first two games of the new season. The 25-year-old has continued to train with the first team and it’s been claimed that dialogue between the coach and player has been minimal but the message is clear: Martinelli’s future lies outside Arsenal.

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Martinelli’s Change of Transfer Stance at Arsenal

Martinelli is not a player who can start regularly for a club with elite aspirations. | Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Until recently, that was a stance the Brazil international wasn’t willing to take. Amid interest from Turkish champions Galatasaray, it was widely reported that Martinelli had rebuffed those advances, warning that he was prioritizing a move to one of Europe’s top clubs if he really had no future in north London.

Following his omission from Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Coventry City, Martinelli has now had a change of heart. The Athletic first reported that Saudi Pro League giants Al Hilal have registered their interest in the winger, who is described as “open to the possibility.” The Gunners are also expected to be willing to do business for a fee of around $81.8 million (£60 million). Fabrizio Romano subsequently revealed that “official club-to-club contact” has been made.

Martinelli is hardly the first Arsenal player to be forced out by Arteta. The Basque boss’s managerial career was originally defined by his exile of Mesut Özil, a player with a considerably higher profile than Martinelli. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Emi Martínez, Nicolas Pépé, Bernd Leno, Mattéo Guendouzi, Aaron Ramsdale and many more were all turfed out of the club at the whim of one of the last true all-controlling managers in the Premier League.

These exits were conducted often regardless of any financial blow Arsenal would suffer. Despite the glittering list of aforementioned names, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s $47.2 million exit to Liverpool in 2017 remains the club’s most expensive sale. Martinelli will surely break that embarrassing record and potentially pave the way for some more business this summer.

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Will Arsenal Replace Gabriel Martinelli This Summer?

Julián Alvarez is only two years into his six-year deal with Atlético Madrid. | Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Arsenal have effectively upgraded Leandro Trossard with the purchase of Christos Tzolis, who has made a fast start to life at the Emirates. Given the considerable interest in Vinícius Júnior before Martinelli’s exit had been heavily mooted, it would be logical to assume that the Brazilian’s sale would be undertaken with a new recruit in mind.

As Arteta and Arsenal’s chief executive Richard Garlick have stressed, Arsenal are only in the market for players who can “change the dial.” If the Gunners are to splash any more cash in a summer which has already seen more than $260 million divided across the arrival of four first-team players, they need to be of the requisite caliber to immediately challenge or get into the starting XI of the Premier League champions.

That dramatically narrows the pool of candidates. “I think for the margins to improve, there are very few players in the market that are available to do that and bring that to the club,” Arteta lamented over his small violin.

Two players who are both of the requisite quality and theoretically available are Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and Julián Alvarez of Atlético Madrid infamy. The divisive Argentine striker has found himself at the center of civil war in Spain and could be available for $175.1 million. Remarkably, that would make Alvarez the cheaper option, considering PSG are demanding $197.9 million for Barcola.

Arsenal have the inclination to replace Martinelli and it’s expected that they would have the funds to stretch to such a swollen outlay after the lucrative success of recent seasons. Yet, whether they consider these targets to be worthy of this fortune is another matter entirely.

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