Yesterday was quite a Sunday for Arsenal supporters.
Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira are all heading towards permanent exits from the Emirates, with the three deals potentially bringing around £72 million into the club.
According to Sky Sports, Arsenal have agreed a club-record £55.7 million deal with Al Hilal for Martinelli, Barcelona have agreed an £8.6 million deal in principle for Jesus, while Vieira is set to join Hamburg for around £7.7 million.
Individually, there are arguments for allowing all three to leave. Collectively, however, the departures raise an obvious question with the transfer deadline approaching.
Are Arsenal leaving themselves short in attack?
Vieira’s departure is perhaps the easiest to understand. He has spent the last two seasons away from Arsenal on loan and does not appear to feature in Mikel Arteta’s plans.
Jesus has also fallen down the attacking pecking order following increased competition for places.
Martinelli is different. At 25, he should be approaching his prime and has remained an important member of Arteta’s squad. However, a club-record offer gives Arsenal an opportunity to make a huge profit on a player signed for a relatively small fee in 2019.
The concern is losing Martinelli and Jesus at the same time.
Christos Tzolis has made an encouraging start, while Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke offer versatility. Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz provide options through the middle.
There is plenty of quality, but is there enough depth for a club competing for the Premier League and Champions League?
Is another Arsenal signing coming?
Arsenal are potentially raising around £72 million while also removing significant wages from the payroll.
It would therefore be surprising if Andrea Berta and Arteta were not at least considering another attacking addition before the window closes.
Arsenal have been linked with several forwards this summer, but there is no guarantee they will move for another attacker. However, Martinelli and Jesus leaving certainly changes the equation.
Perhaps Arteta is satisfied with the options already available to him. However, selling two senior attackers without replacing either would be a gamble during a season in which Arsenal will be fighting on several fronts.
After raising around £72 million from three departures, could Arsenal be clearing the decks for one final signing?
What do you think? Would you be happy with Arsenal’s current attacking options, or does another forward have to arrive before the transfer window closes? Let us know in the comments.
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Vieira – No need to replace, he wasn’t featuring at all.
Jesus – I would say similar, as you would think Merino is even ahead of him in the striking department.
Martinelli – Need to replace, as he was a constant feature.
Therefore one big signing needed I would think (preferably a player who thrives attacking on the left, but can cover multiple attacking positions), then our squad is complete.
Spot on, bearing in mind we lost proven Trossard too – though Tzolis looking very promising.
Would feel better if last year’s attacking purchases were more reliable.
Well that would be Barcola or Ndiaye, but hang on though, Barcola gone to Liverpool and Ndiaye to spurs, oh well there’s always Rashford🤷♂️
Rashford 😡
Whilst I wouldn’t want Rashford on a permanent basis, he’s a decent enough player. Shame about past behaviour when during the Covid crisis he spoke up about child poverty and free school meals. Do we believe in redemption?
Who to replace Martinelli quality. We can’t depend on Tzolis alone for whole season.
72m from the sale of 3 players? This exact amount bar inflation was paid to bring in Pepe. Arsenal love last minute window slamming buys. Who knows as this summer no player arrived from the Iberian peninsula
What does no player being from the Iberian peninsula have to do with whether Arsenal has last minute window slamming buys?
There’s always been this talk of how Berta would strategically talk 3 or 4 players up in a certain position instead of focusing on one player only in case that player changes his mind.
Wonder how that is looking like now…
The rumour mill is getting easier to interpret now as the pool of players we are after is getting smaller and smaller. If we are looking in the region of the Barcola’s, Vini’s etc, there’s not much else around in that pool.
So either something is happening in the background and we are in for a massive surprise, or squad stays as it is. I don’t see Arteta/Berta just signing for the sake of it.
Martin Baturina of Como seems interesting. Scored a cracking goal against us in July.
Hes CAM but can play LW as well.
Yes. I also believe there’ll be one final signing, but it’s going to be an affordable LW instead of the £100+ m one like Alvarez
Romano said Richarlison has got three offers, so Arsenal’s could be one of them
Matias Fernandez-Pardo could also be the panic buy, which would be underwhelming since he hasn’t produced any goal or assist in Ligue 1 this season so far
@GAI, I really hope we steer clear of Richarlison!
Regarding Matias Fernandez-Pardo, I don’t think he would necessarily be a panic buy. He’s only 21, already playing in the Belgian national team, has shown what he’s worth prior to this season. There’s only been 2 games this current season so don’t think we can make a judgement just yet…
Initially the idea was for Tzolis to be a squad player and a back up to a marquee signing. Now that the picture has changed, a young player like MFP might be a good addition as back up to Tzolis.
You judge a player after just two games?
And yet you seem comfortable being linked to a player who has been utter shit for years?
Personally I think we have blown any chance of doing anything now.
Two and a half months is only enough time to buy defensive players that we don’t need
Well GAI, maybe, unusually, if you are not in the team, you can’t create or score?? He has not played this season because they expect to transfer him?
He’s off to Newcastle by the look of it anyway
Looks that way. If it goes through, I think he will be a good player for them.
Like everyone else, I think there will be another player coming in.
The rumour mill has it that Arsenal are going in to hijack the spuds on Iliman Ndiaye.
The Moyes / Arteta relationship might swing that one.
From the Player’s perspective – P L Champions or Basement Chumps…!!!
with the £72M coming in, there’ll almost certainly be a deadline day signing.
Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0
Yeah I would look into Ndiaye if his price tag is not inflated like we have seen multiple times this window.
I have also heard talk of potentially keeping the money to see where were are at in January, like City did last season.
Maybe a Kroupi could be on the cards come Jan…
We can’t hijack another one of Spuds deals at the death. They were hoping to score a few goals this season. Before you know it they’ll have yet another Spursy mental complex to deal with in the NLD.
Kevin Shade perhaps, atleast he’s pacy
we need the pace variation
Schade
Now that Barcola has signed for Liverpool (aaargh), rumour has it Liverpool is going to offload Gakpo to Man City.
A perfectly good, Prem-experienced left winger who is good enough to be Liverpool’s first choice left winger is suddenly on the market? Berta, get amongst it!
This. I’d prefer gakpo to barcola anyway. Gakpo is a little inconsistent but produces decently overall. Barcola on the other hand has never produced. Even though he’s still young and could improve his final product I just don’t feel like he’s ever going to score or assist at a high level. If he couldn’t do it in psg’s attack why would anyone think he would in arteta’s?
Absolutely! It’s our turn to make the perfect swoop, or are we still in Abu Dhabi’s shadow?
Also a highly plausible rumour today around Malick Fofana from Lyon.
This one feels real to me for three reasons:
Lyon need to sell a player – making him cheaper than the original asking price.
He’s represented by Roc Nation, who also represent Martinelli.
He is a pace player so fills the Martinelli shaped hole on our left wing.
Update: according to Sami Mokbel, no alignment in the management team about Fofana.
Seems he may have been offered up by Roc Nation. His recent ankle injury history means he needs a serious medical. Next to that he’s obviously more squad player level at this point in his development, in many ways a downgrade from Martinelli, so quite possible Arteta doesn’t like the idea at all. Lyon may not be willing to accept what we would be prepared to pay for a risky purchase anyway.
Yes who is it that is rumoured not to like Fofana. The same rumour suggests Arteta has spoken to him, suggests Arteta keen if he done that?
What’s interesting about Fofana is he has good scoring record – 2 from 5 already this season – despite being far from the finished article. He’s definitely behind Tzolis and Eze in starting matches. But a bench option, against tiring low blocks later in a match. He’s the speedy Martinelli type player, so we could end the window with Trossard and Martinelli, only younger versions of each of them, who currently don’t offer as much. And a fair bit of money in the bank for coming windows.
I have no problem with the quality and depth of our squad. Nor the overall window for us.
For me the two biggest mistakes made were the time wasted on Vinicius Junior, who I don’t care what anyone says was never coming to us.
And the more recent one on Alvarez. He’s made it perfectly clear on more than one occasion that he’s not interested in playing in England let alone for us. But still we waste time waiting on his decision. A decision he’s already made.
Now all I can see is us making a last minute panic buy from yes you’ve guest it, Chelsea.
This is worrying. How many “deadlines” have to pass before they realize Alvarez is not going to come, or will I read on Wednesday that we are still trying to see if he is interested in joining.
Long overdue to fill that LW slot. Tzolis was a nice find, but he was never to be the sole answer, especially considering the packed schedule and the ever possibility of injury / lost time.
Sure, some of these are unproven and expensive for what they are at the moment – NDiaye, Fernandez-Prado, Schade – but get one in and see how it works out. We certainly have survived a few misfires in the past. And why not be looking at Gakpo, as Barcola may have taken his spot and seems to being made available – a credible LW option.
I do trust that there will be an incoming, but leaving it to the final minutes seems to be a little careless.
While I think we HAVE had a good Transfer Window so far, and if we do get a good solid quality addition at the right price before the window closes, it could still be a very good Transfer Window (in my view)
I definitely agree with Derek and others.
Too much time has been wasted on V J and J A – unless by some sheer fluke we do sign J A in time and he genuinely commits to ‘Play For The Badge’.
To quote Winston Churchill:
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
To quote John F Kennedy:
‘An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.’
Apparently, The Club still interacts with the Arsenal Supporters Trust, so let’s hope that these points are are being, and will continue to be clearly made.
History is written by the victors and never correct an error with another mistake. Bruised Banana: 2026
Adequate transfer window imo. I don’t believe we were truly interested in bringing in JA and the financial risk both short and long-term associated with VJ were just too great, again imo. This coming from someone who was all for getting what I felt was as close to a sure thing as you could get in Declan Rice.
Chris S,
I’ll chuck a saying in. If things don’t change, they stay as they are. 😂 You started it. 🤣👍
Yeah! Pop the corks but get different balls for penalties!