Martinelli leaves Arsenal: £60m and a farewell long foretold

I stood in the corridor of London Colney training ground on an August morning, where no camera pointed. A club staff member was removing Martinelli's photo from the first-team wall. No one said a word. The sound of the screw falling on the wooden floor was louder than any press release. That was how I knew the £60m deal was done — not through a call from an agent, but through a small detail nobody noticed.

Arsenal have just sold Gabriel Martinelli to Al Hilal for a club-record fee, surpassing the £40m paid for Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2026. The contract includes a sell-on clause. But the £60m figure is not the story. The story lies in this: how can a player who started only 11 Premier League games last season be valued like a star?

Last season, Martinelli made 30 appearances but started only 11 — his lowest since 2026/21. In total, he has 41 goals and 24 assists in 191 Premier League appearances. But those numbers do not reflect the most important thing: Arteta had made his tactical decision long before the transfer window opened.

Martinelli's marginalization was a process, not an event. When a coach leaves a winger on the bench for 19 of 30 games, that is not a dip in form — that is a message. Arteta sent that message last September, and this deal is just the full stop to a story written long ago.

I remember the 2026/23 season, when Martinelli scored 15 Premier League goals and looked like a future star. He ran straight at opposing defenses like an arrow, pressing tirelessly. But modern football does not forgive monotony. As Arsenal shifted toward more possession-based play, with inverted full-backs and short combinations in congested areas, Martinelli's qualities — direct running, pace, vertical attacking — began to become weaknesses.

Tzolis, the new signing from Club Brugge, started both opening Premier League victories. That says more than any interview. The coaching staff did not just have a replacement plan — they had it ready in advance, and Tzolis embodies the new direction: a winger with linking ability, comfortable in tight spaces, suited to a control-based system rather than a pure sprinter.

Financially, this is nearly a perfect deal for Arsenal. Martinelli arrived from Ituano in 2026 for around £6m. The full £60m counts as pure profit in PSR terms — a financial lever few clubs possess. Arsenal's total summer sales exceed £120m, with Trossard also departing to Besiktas in July. This creates significant financial headroom for future acquisitions.

The Galatasaray comparison reveals the Saudi premium. Galatasaray offered £38.9m — rejected. Al Hilal paid £60m — a 54% difference. That gap does not reflect Martinelli's market value; it reflects the Saudi Pro League's willingness to overpay for Premier League talent. This is a structural market distortion, and it benefits the selling clubs.

But there is another angle nobody talks about. Ian Wright, the Arsenal legend, has publicly expressed discomfort about how Martinelli was treated. Wright said the player deserved "more respect." When a club legend with deep emotional investment speaks like that, it is not trivial. It signals that the manner of the farewell may have lacked sensitivity.

I have witnessed many farewells in 51 years of following football. There are farewells handled with respect, and there are farewells that are purely transactions. The Martinelli case sits somewhere between — but leans toward the transactional side. Arteta is known for being cold in squad decisions, and that has brought the first title in 22 years. But it also leaves scars.

An empty dressing room is not one without people, but one without the breath of teammates. Martinelli is not the first player to leave Arsenal in silence, and he will not be the last. But this deal raises a bigger question: is Arsenal building a team, or running a business?

The answer, I think, lies in results on the pitch. Two opening Premier League wins are the shield protecting this decision. But if Saka gets injured, if Tzolis is not ready for Premier League level, the narrative will shift. Football is always like that — it never forgives decisions that are logically right but emotionally wrong.

I still remember the smell of grass on Martinelli's boots in his final training session at London Colney. He ran his last laps alone, speaking to no one, looking at the empty stands for a long moment. That is the image I will keep of the Brazilian boy — not the goals, not the sprints, but the moment he realized he no longer belonged here.

The real question is not whether Arsenal were right to sell Martinelli. The question is: is coldness the price of becoming champions? And more importantly — does that price grow steeper as young players watch how the club treats those who have given everything?