Ian Wright: Martinelli Deserves More Respect Amid Arsenal Exit Talks
Ian Wright has accused Arsenal of mishandling Gabriel Martinelli’s situation and says the Brazilian “deserves more respect” as the club invite offers for the winger.
Martinelli, 25, played 53 times in all competitions last season, scored 11 goals and helped Arsenal over the line to win the Premier League title. A core part of Mikel Arteta’s project, a fan favourite, a symbol of the club’s resurgence.
Now he is nowhere to be seen.
From title winner to watching on
Arsenal opened their title defence with a 3-0 win over Coventry on Friday night. Martinelli was not just on the bench. He was out of the squad entirely.
He had also been left out of the Community Shield squad that beat Manchester City, a second straight omission that underlined how sharply his status has shifted.
Arsenal insist this is about competition, not exile. New signing Christos Tzolis impressed on the left wing against Coventry, operating in Martinelli’s usual zone. The club also pushed to sign Vinicius Jr earlier in the summer before the Brazil star committed his future to Real Madrid.
From the outside, it looks like a clear message. Inside, Wright believes the handling crosses a line.
“The way Martinelli is being treated at the moment, it really makes me feel uncomfortable,” the former Arsenal striker told Sky Sports.
“I know they might want him out, and a lot of people might say, ‘yeah, it’s time for him to move him on’. But there’s ways of doing that and it should suit him as well, how he wants to leave.
“Not being involved in the squad, not being spoken to, he doesn’t know what’s going on. And yes, I know this – he doesn’t know what is happening.
“He’s done enough with this squad to be treated with a little bit more respect than he’s being treated with at the moment.”
Arteta’s rebuild bites
Martinelli arrived from Ituano in 2019 as a raw teenager and has been part of the first-team picture throughout Arteta’s reign. He grew with the manager, survived the early clear-outs and became one of the dressing room’s most popular figures.
Now, as Arsenal try to turn one title into an era, he looks like one of the first major casualties of the next phase.
The club want at least one significant sale before the transfer window shuts. Internally, Martinelli is viewed as one of their most valuable assets, alongside Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira. The message to Europe is clear: he is available.
He has already rejected a move to Galatasaray and, if he leaves the Emirates Stadium, he will push for a top European club.
For Wright, the issue is not just that Arsenal are ready to sell. It is how that reality has been delivered to a player who helped drag them back to the summit.
“If you bring Vini in, Martinelli can say to himself, ‘OK, they’ve brought him in, they’ve brought Tzolis in, I might be third [in the pecking order],” Wright said.
“But if you bring Tzolis in and have [Noni] Madueke on the other side, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘I can still have it with these two, I’ve got something to offer’.
“For him to be nowhere near it, it just makes me feel a bit sad for him.”
Arsenal deny freeze-out
Inside the club, the line is firm: Martinelli is not being frozen out. His absence, they argue, reflects the squad’s depth and the need to reward form, with Tzolis seizing his chance on the left.
Arteta, speaking before the Coventry game and asked about the possibility of established players being moved on, did not name Martinelli. His words, though, framed the ruthlessness of Arsenal’s next steps.
“It's a really tough moment, but you need to face that reality,” he said.
“You need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that's exactly what you need.
“You might not like what you've been told, but if it's truthful, if it's the reality, if it's honest and it's going to help you to make better decisions and have more clarity for the next steps in your career, you have to do that.
“Everything has a start and has an end. And when it comes to the end, our duty, and our responsibility is to do it in the best possible way, maintaining the respect and admiration for the player and the relationship, but understanding that at the end, we need to make football decisions.”
That last line is where the tension lies. Arsenal insist respect is being maintained. Wright does not recognise it in what he is seeing.
As the champions chase another title and the market ticks towards deadline day, the question hangs over the Emirates: is this just football decisions, or the messy end of a relationship that once looked central to Arsenal’s future?
