Arsenal's late Gabriel Martinelli decision, Mikel Arteta treatment and Ian Wright's criticism
Arsenal have decided to sell Gabriel Martinelli this summer
It's almost all over for Gabriel Martinelli at Arsenal, with the Brazilian set to join Al Hilal in a £60million move.
The move will make him Arsenal’s most expensive sale of all time, eclipsing the benchmark set nine years ago by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain following his £35million switch on August 31, 2017.
football.london understands that entering this summer’s transfer window, it was an objective of the club to finally bring an end to this long-running record. In the years since, Manchester City have sold 11 players for more than the Arsenal record, five of which came this summer alone.
Liverpool, who bought Oxlade-Chamberlain, sold Philippe Coutinho in the same summer for well in excess of £100million to Barcelona. The Reds have since sold Fabinho, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez for greater fees.
Arsenal under pressure to sell following several summers of spending, which was comparatively not offset by their outgoings in the same way clubs like City and Chelsea have managed in recent years. The arrival of Mikel Arteta in 2019 began a complete rebuild of the squad that would win the title six and a half years later, but in that time experienced a global pandemic which affected clubs’ capacity to spend at a time when Arsenal were looking to sell.
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Contracts were cancelled, the club took out a loan from the Bank of England under the Covid Corporate Financing Facility scheme to help with revenue losses, and the club relied on their existing commercial revenue. That improved considerably in the years following the pandemic, and healthier financial standing prior to the pandemic from many years under Arsene Wenger, to enable them to continue to grow the squad.
Martinelli arrived in 2019, before Arteta, for around £6million. He burst onto the scene under Unai Emery in the Europa League scoring twice against Standard Liege and once against Vitoria in his first two European games at just 18 years old.
However, he would suffer a serious knee injury not long after Arteta’s arrival having scored his second and third Premier League goals against Sheffield United and, famously, Chelsea. You know the one.
It meant he missed the FA Cup final, which Arsenal won, in which he helped the side on their way, assisting Bukayo Saka for the opener away to Bournemouth in a 2-1 win. While many of the players Arteta inherited were being sold or leaving at the end of their deals, Martinelli was kept, and his contract was renewed.
He would go to make 278 appearances for the club, scoring 62 goals. His best season came in 2022/23, where he scored 15 Premier League goals in 36 games.
However, he failed to reach those heights in the subsequent three seasons. Come the end of the 2025/26 title-winning campaign, football.london understands that the player had already been considering next steps, aware that the club were expected to reinforce in the wide left position.
Eberechi Eze had started above both Martinelli and Leandro Trossard away to Manchester City. This is believed to have been a signal of intent from Mikel Arteta that is being seen in the new campaign already.
In fact, football.london has been told by sources that Eze was considered to be ahead of Martinelli in the pecking order following the World Cup, and the club had decided this would be a good time for the player to move on if they could find a deal which suited all parties.
Galatasaray emerged as a potential candidate; however, their bid in the region of £38million was well below what Arsenal were looking for. Bearing in mind this would, at the time, have made him the second-most expensive player in Turkish League history, behind only Victor Osimhen.
Fees for the likes of Savinho to Spurs, Morgan Rogers to Chelsea and Anthony Gordon are believed to have been considered internally regarding how Martinelli’s value was considered. However, the Gunners lacked major interest after a disappointing season where the 25-year-old scored just one Premier League goal, from a top five league, particularly from an English club.
Ian Wright’s questioning of the player’s treatment by Arsenal on Sky Sports came as a surprise to many internally at Arsenal. The player had communication from Mikel Arteta over his lack of inclusion in the matchday squads against Manchester City in the Community Shield and Coventry City on the opening day, football.london understands.
"The way Martinelli is being treated at the moment, it really makes me feel uncomfortable," Wright said after the win over Coventry.
"I know they might want him out, and a lot of people might say, 'yeah, it's time for him to move him on'. But there's ways of doing that and it should suit him as well, how he wants to leave.
"Not being involved in the squad, not being spoken to, he doesn't know what's going on. And yes, I know this - he doesn't know what is happening.
"He's done enough with this squad to be treated with a little bit more respect than he's being treated with at the moment."
There is a sense that while Arteta had communicated the reasons behind the lack of inclusion in the squad, the intentions to sell Martinelli and at what stage any potential exit or interest from the club’s side had not yet been made clear. That being said, it is not normal for sporting directors, for instance, to keep players continually aware of what is going on behind the scenes until a time when it becomes necessary.
Furthermore, the club, despite the addition of Christos Tzolis, were still on the lookout for a major addition on the left-hand side. Keenness on Rogers had moved on after Chelsea’s big money move, Vinicius Junior had signed a new contract with Real Madrid, and Julian Alvarez’s position remained steadfast, and would do so until the window closed, that he would only leave Atletico Madrid for Barcelona.
It had been the plan for Martinelli and Trossard to both be replaced. One with a lower profile option, seen as a great market opportunity and a chance to develop a lesser-known player, Tzolis, and to add a marquee player to take the attack to another level.
Sadly, the market simply did not present in the way the club had hoped, and as the window began to enter its final stages and Al Hilal emerged as a genuine candidate to both want to sign Martinelli and be willing to spend the money the club were looking for, a decision was made internally.
football.london understands that Arsenal were aligned at all levels that Martinelli would be sold even if they then could not find another forward during the window. Even as the deadline came closer and the Malick Fofana saga came and went, at no point was it considered that they would pull the plug on the deal.
Tzolis, Eze and Noni Madueke were considered enough until at least January for the start of the season, and despite having grand ideas of a market-shaking arrival, the lack of one couldn’t prevent getting a record-breaking £60m deal agreed with the Saudi club.
News of negotiations went quiet over the final weekend before the window closed, with the clubs locked in negotiations. football.london understands Martinelli’s former side, Ituano, had a 15% sell-on profit clause in the deal, which saw him join Arsenal in 2019.
Initially, there was an understanding of a £50million plus around £6million in add-ons being discussed with hopes of another sell-on clause being included. The clubs have since agreed a £60m deal with a sell-on fee in the agreement.
Martinelli arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, completing a medical in the following 24 hours. An announcement of his exit from the club is imminent, with the Saudi window remaining open all the way through until October 12.
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