TAGS: gabriel martinelli, julian alvarez, transfer deadline
Four out in a day. Gabriel Martinelli to Al-Hilal for €70m (£60m) on a four-year deal, a club-record sale. Gabriel Jesus to Barcelona for €10m plus add-ons. Fábio Vieira to Hamburg, and Reiss Nelson's contract terminated by mutual consent.
Thursday's post had the Hamburg deal for Vieira in advanced talks. It's agreed now, and it turns out he was the small print on a much bigger clearout.
Martinelli is the one that stings. Seven years, and he leaves at 25 with the club banking the biggest fee they've ever received for a player. A column on The Athletic frames it as sadness and puzzlement rather than a decision anyone can defend cleanly, and that's about right. He never quite kicked on from that 15-goal season, but you don't usually sell that profile at that age.
Jesus going for £8.6m is the cost of a contract running out next summer. Three Premier League starts last season. There was no leverage and everyone knew it.
All of which is meant to fund Julián Álvarez, and there's the problem. Atlético say they won't sell to Barcelona, but Álvarez has his heart set on the Nou Camp, and Arsenal are the club standing in the corridor hoping he changes his mind. Sunday's deadline from Atlético has come and gone without resolution.
So Arsenal have sold two forwards and are hoping to sign one. If Álvarez picks Barcelona, that squad looks thin in a way it didn't on Friday.
Marcus Rashford on loan is doing the rounds as the backup plan. I'd want to see something firmer than paper talk before taking it seriously.
Arteta has asked the Premier League to increase matchday squads from 20 to 25, citing player welfare and the effect of dropping people. Serie A already allows 25. It's a reasonable argument from a manager who's about to have fewer players to leave out.
Bruno Guimarães and Ezri Konsa could both make their league debuts at Aston Villa on Monday.
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