Gabriel Martinelli's Arsenal Exit: A Brutal Farewell
Gabriel Martinelli’s long Arsenal story is almost over – and the ending is brutal.
The Brazilian winger, the club’s longest-serving player, is closing in on a permanent move to Al Hilal after Mikel Arteta told him directly to find a new club. No grey area. No soft landing. Just a clean break as the Premier League champions sharpen their squad for another tilt at the top.
For a player who has poured nearly seven years into Arsenal and clocked close to 300 appearances since his 2019 debut, the manner of his exit cuts deep. He has been completely frozen out of recent matchday squads, a stark fall from grace for someone who only a few months ago was part of a side reaching a Champions League final and ending a 20-year wait for the league title.
Dressing room unease
Arteta’s stance has not gone unnoticed inside the dressing room. According to ESPN, his ruthless handling of Martinelli has caused “some discomfort” among the squad. Team-mates, many of whom have grown up at the club alongside him, are said to feel genuine sympathy for the winger as he is pushed towards the exit.
The tension spiked around the Community Shield. Arsenal beat Manchester City, lifted the season’s first piece of silverware – and Martinelli watched it all from the outside. Left out of the squad entirely, he did not receive a winners’ medal. Globo Esporte report that the decision left him “greatly disappointed”, and senior players were also unhappy with the complete omission of such a long-serving figure.
From that moment, the mood shifted. It felt less like rotation and more like a statement.
Left flank revolution
The clues had been building all summer. Arsenal paid around £34 million to bring in Christos Tzolis, a highly rated attacking talent who can operate off the left. On top of that, the club launched an ambitious, ultimately unsuccessful push to prise Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid. Those moves underlined a clear theme: Arteta wanted to remodel his left side.
In that context, Martinelli’s situation began to look less like a blip and more like a plan.
His influence had already dipped slightly last season, even as he remained an important part of Arsenal’s run to the Champions League final and their charge to the title. The competition for places has intensified, and Arteta appears to have decided that sentiment cannot stand in the way of evolution.
Saudi switch on the horizon
The clearest sign of the end came on the opening weekend of the new Premier League campaign. Arsenal faced Coventry City. Martinelli was nowhere to be seen. No injury, no cameo, no bench role. Just absence – and, with it, the sense that his Arsenal career was effectively over.
There has been outside interest. Galatasaray tested the water, but their approach failed to spark Martinelli’s enthusiasm. The turning point came from Saudi Arabia. Globo Esporte report that, after some initial reluctance, the 23-year-old has now given the green light to a lucrative move to Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League.
The deal is not done yet. The two clubs are still haggling over the fee. Arsenal are said to be holding out for a package in the region of £60 million for a player who has grown with the club and delivered across multiple competitions. ESPN, though, suggest the final figure is more likely to land closer to £40 million.
That gap will decide how quickly the saga ends. But the direction of travel is clear.
Arteta has drawn a hard line. The squad is being reshaped without one of its most familiar faces. The fans who watched Martinelli rise from raw teenager to title winner will soon see him in different colours, on a different continent.
The only real question left is not whether he leaves – but how Arsenal will look, and feel, once he’s gone.
