Arsenal want to secure a club-record transfer fee for Gabriel Martinelli with talks underway between the Premier League champions and Al-Hilal.
The Brazil international’s Gunners career appears to be over after he was left out of the matchday squads for both the Community Shield and Friday’s game against Coventry City.
Summer signing Christos Tzolis made an eye-catching debut in Martinelli’s customary left-wing position, and with Mikel Arteta keen to make another headline attacking purchase before the window closes, the Arsenal boss admitted some difficult decisions would need to be made.
Arteta has confirmed over the past week that Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Zubimendi remain in his plans, while the north London club’s preference is to send Ethan Nwaneri out on loan.
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That has left Martinelli as Arsenal’s most saleable commodity and as such the 25-year-old has effectively been deemed surplus to requirements.
According to The Athletic, Martinelli is open to the idea of moving to the Saudi Pro League, having rejected a potential transfer to Galatasaray earlier this month.
Arsenal are hopeful of securing a fee of around £60million for Martinelli, who arrived at the club seven years ago as an almost total unknown from his boyhood club Ituano, on the recommendation of prolific talent spotter Francis Cagigao.
Given his service to Arsenal over the course of the last seven years, the way his impending departure has been handled has left a sour taste in the mouth of Ian Wright.
Speaking after Friday’s 3-0 win against Coventry, Wright said: ‘In respects to Martinelli and the way Martinelli has been treated at the moment it really makes me feel uncomfortable.
‘Because he always gives 100 per cent, I’m not saying he’s the greatest, he’s really come up with some big moments for Arsenal, some big games, he’s scored some very important goals… the way he’s been treated at the end here, I know they might want him out, and there’s a lot of people saying, ‘yeah, maybe it’s time for him to move on’, but there’s ways of doing that and it should suit him as well, how he wants to leave.
‘Not being in the squad, not being spoken to, doesn’t know what’s going on, yes, I do know this, again, not being involved in the Community Shield squad, he doesn’t know what’s happening, I think he’s got a year left [on his contract].
‘If you bring Vini [Vinicius Junior] in, that kind of level in, Martinelli can say to himself, ‘well, okay, they’ve brought him and Tzolis, I might be third [choice]’, but if you’re bringing Tzolis in, and he’s looking at Tzolis, you look at Madueke on the other [wing], you’re thinking to yourself, ‘I think I can still have it with these two, I still think I’ve got something to offer here’.
‘For him to be nowhere near it, it makes me feel sad for him.
‘I’m just saying I think he’s done enough with this team, with this squad, to be treated with a little bit more respect than he’s being treated at the moment.’
