Martinelli's Arsenal Exit: A New Chapter Begins
Gabriel Martinelli’s Arsenal story is being pushed towards an abrupt, unsentimental ending. The Brazilian has been told directly by Mikel Arteta to find a new club, and all roads now lead to the Saudi Pro League and Al Hilal.
For Arsenal’s longest-serving player, it is a ruthless twist.
Once a symbol of the club’s rebuild, Martinelli has been frozen out of recent matchday squads, cut cleanly from the picture just weeks after the Gunners lifted the Premier League trophy. His exit would underline how hard-edged this new title-winning Arsenal has become under Arteta: sentiment out, squad evolution in.
The decision has not landed softly inside the dressing room. ESPN report that Arteta’s handling of the situation has caused “some discomfort” among the squad, with several players strongly sympathetic to Martinelli’s plight. A popular figure is being ushered out, and not everyone is comfortable with the manner of it.
The tension spiked around the Community Shield. Arsenal beat Manchester City at Wembley, but Martinelli was nowhere near the squad and did not receive a winners’ medal. According to the same report, that call left him “greatly disappointed”, while senior team-mates were also deeply unhappy with the outright omission. A curtain-raiser turned into a clear signal: he was no longer part of the plan.
The transfer market moves that followed only reinforced that message. Arsenal paid around £34 million for Christos Tzolis earlier in the summer, a significant outlay on another left-sided attacker. On top of that, the club launched an ambitious, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to lure Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid. Those efforts painted the picture: Arteta wanted a refreshed left flank, and Martinelli was no longer central to it.
It is a stark comedown for a player who broke into the first team in 2019 and has since clocked up nearly 300 appearances in all competitions. His influence dipped slightly last season, but he still played a key part in Arsenal’s run to the Champions League final and their first league title since 2004. He helped drag the club back to the elite. Now he is being shown the door.
The latest snub came on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season, when Martinelli was again left out entirely against Coventry City. At that point, his departure stopped feeling like a possibility and started looking like a formality.
Galatasaray tested the waters earlier in the window, but their approach did not appeal to the Brazilian. Globo Esporte report that, after some initial hesitation, he has now given the green light to a move to Saudi Arabia, attracted by Al Hilal’s proposal and the scale of the offer on the table.
One major hurdle remains: the fee. Arsenal are said to be holding out for a package in the region of £60 million for a player who has given them years of service and is still in his prime. ESPN, though, suggest the final agreement may land closer to £40 million.
If that lower figure is where it settles, Arsenal will be banking less than they hoped for a cornerstone of their rebuild. But with Arteta already reshaping the attack and the player effectively cut off from the squad, the real question now is not whether Martinelli leaves.
It is how quickly Arsenal are prepared to close the book on one of the defining characters of their new era.
