Gabriel Martinelli has moved closer to an Arsenal exit after becoming the latest player to clash with Mikel Arteta\u2019s uncompromising approach to squad management.<\/p>\n
Reports now suggest the Brazil international is \u201copen\u201d to leaving the Premier League champions, after Arteta made clear where he believes the winger stands in the pecking order this season. The Arsenal manager has shown little flexibility, leaving Martinelli out of the matchday squad for the first two games of the new campaign while the player has continued training with the first team.<\/p>\n
Dialogue between the pair has reportedly been limited, but the message from the club remains plain: Martinelli\u2019s future is likely elsewhere. That marks a change in stance for the 25-year-old, who had previously resisted interest from Turkish champions Galatasaray. At that stage, he was said to be prioritising a move to one of Europe\u2019s leading clubs if his prospects in north London disappeared.<\/p>\n
His omission from Arsenal\u2019s Premier League opener against Coventry City appears to have sharpened the situation further. The Athletic reported that Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal have now entered the picture and that Martinelli is \u201copen to the possibility.\u201d Arsenal are also understood to be prepared to do business for about $81.8 million (\u00a360 million). Fabrizio Romano later added that \u201cofficial club-to-club contact\u201d has already been made.<\/p>\n
Martinelli would not be the first high-profile Arsenal player to fall out of favour under Arteta. The manager\u2019s tenure has been marked by the departures of Mesut \u00d6zil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Emi Mart\u00ednez, Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9, Bernd Leno, Matt\u00e9o Guendouzi and Aaron Ramsdale, among others.<\/p>\n
Arsenal have often accepted those exits despite financial damage, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain\u2019s $47.2 million move to Liverpool in 2017 still their record sale. Martinelli could surpass that figure if a transfer is completed.<\/p>\n
The club have already invested more than $260 million on four first-team arrivals this summer, and Arteta and chief executive Richard Garlick have said Arsenal will only pursue players who can \u201cchange the dial.\u201d As Arteta put it: \u201cI think for the margins to improve, there are very few players in the market that are available to do that and bring that to the club,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martinelli is now said to be open to leaving Arsenal after Arteta’s firm early-season stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1843,1589],"tags":[182],"class_list":["post-18720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-transfer-news","category-coventry-city","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}