Deadline Day in the Premier League ended without any fresh twist for Arsenal, but Gabriel Martinelli\u2019s expected departure is still understood to be moving forward.<\/p>\n
There had been some hope that the move might stall, especially with Arsenal needing options on the left side across a demanding season. Even so, the expectation remains that the deal will go through, and Martinelli was filmed arriving in Riyadh on Tuesday evening without any sign of a late problem.<\/p>\n
The Saudi Pro League still has time on its side, and that matters here. Its transfer window remains open until the final seconds of Oct. 12, which means a player can continue to feature for Arsenal and still complete a move to Al Hilal later. The timing is unusual by Premier League standards, but the league does not operate by the same schedule.<\/p>\n
That broader approach also shapes how clubs in the division think about recruitment. The Saudi Pro League is said to take a view of the wider competition as part of its transfer business, with normal concerns about value and sustainability pushed aside.<\/p>\n
Before Sunderland and Crystal Palace were involved in an agent-led battle, Arsenal had briefly looked at Malick Fofana. The 21-year-old Belgium forward was considered as an emergency option after Morgan Rogers, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and Juli\u00e1n Alvarez had already turned the club down.<\/p>\n
Even that possible move never progressed properly. The Athletic reported conflicting explanations, including the suggestion that Lyon\u2019s $40.5 million (\u00a330 million) asking price was beyond Arsenal\u2019s reach and that there were fears over UEFA\u2019s financial rules. Arsenal are also believed to have described the situation with the vague explanation of \u201ctechnical reasons\u201d. Concerns over Fofana\u2019s physicality were also mentioned, with the winger having missed five months last season after ankle surgery and then being sidelined again for another six weeks after two short cameos in March.<\/p>\n
Arsenal ended last season with three left-wing options in Leandro Trossard, Martinelli and Eberechi Eze. Christos Tzolis has been presented as a like-for-like replacement for Trossard, but Martinelli\u2019s exit would still leave Arteta short of one winger.<\/p>\n
Noni Madueke may be another possibility on that side, although it has long looked like an uneasy fit. Whatever Arsenal have gained from Martinelli\u2019s limitations, they are also set to miss a major asset in his pace. No one in the squad comes close to matching the Brazilian\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martinelli\u2019s move to Al Hilal still looks likely, with Arsenal left lighter on pace and width.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1843],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-transfer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18973","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=18973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}