It’s done. Gabriel Martinelli has joined Al-Hilal for £60m, a fixed fee plus a sell-on clause, and Arsenal have never sold anyone for more. The previous record was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in 2017, reported at somewhere between £35m and £40m depending where you look — which tells you how little this club has extracted from the market for a decade. Because Martinelli arrived as a teenager for a nominal fee, almost the whole £60m lands as profit in the books.
Monday’s post had it at €70m and a four-year deal. Worth saying that the figure agreed and reported that day was £55.7m; the €70m/£60m number firmed up as the deal completed.
Seven years, arriving from Ituano, leaving as a Premier League champion with 278 appearances and 62 goals. You can argue about the last two seasons and whether he was ever going to be the wide forward this side needed — one league goal in thirty appearances last year is a hard number to defend. You can’t argue with the profit.
What you can argue with is the shape of the squad he leaves behind. Martinelli out, Jesus out, and a summer whose attacking business begins and ends with Christos Tzolis at £34m. Neither departure was scoring much lately, but that’s two forwards gone and none in.
And the Álvarez business apparently isn’t finished — plenty left in it, with Barcelona still circling and no shortage of bad blood at Atlético. That’s a January story now, and January forwards cost more than September ones. I’d rather not find out.
Arsenal Women have signed Élisa De Almeida from PSG, a three-year deal for just over half a million pounds. She takes the number 5. The 28-year-old made 154 appearances across five years in Paris and has 52 France caps, and the pressing reason for the signing is Katie Reid, who isn’t expected back from an ACL injury until around November. She can cover right-back too, though with Fox, Holmberg and Batlle there, centre-half is where she’ll play, alongside Williamson, Wubben-Moy and Catley. At that fee it’s hard to see a downside.
Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday, the first London derby of the season. Konsa already has his Arsenal debut, having come on late at Villa Park to a mixed reception from the ground he left ten days earlier; what Sunday could bring is a first start for him and Bruno Guimarães both. The midfield is the best part of this squad by a distance. It’ll need to be.
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