Arteta urged to use the loan system to get this struggling youngster more game time

Gabriel Martinelli has struggled to play for Arsenal this season and Express Sports’ Lewis Winter believes the Brazilian might benefit from being sent out on loan in the January transfer window.

He writes in his column: “It may be best for Martinelli to spend regular game time elsewhere.

“Emile Smith Rowe is a fine example of a player who returned from a loan spell a far better player.

“Smith Rowe had an unsuccessful time at RB Leipzig but it was the second-half of the 2019/20 campaign at Huddersfield where he flourished.

“The 21-year-old is now a nailed-on starter for Arteta in his best XI.

“Arteta has also recently pointed out the competition Martinelli faces in the attacking areas.

“That is true – he is unlikely to get in ahead of Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette anytime soon.

“Nicolas Pepe has had a poor start to the season but seems to also be ahead in Arteta’s pecking order.

“If those players remain fit heading into January, then allowing Martinelli to go out on loan could be one of the best decisions Arteta makes.”

Regular game time is the name of the game for youngsters and it affects their development in the long term.

Martinelli has shown more than enough capabilities to play just a handful of games for us.

The Brazilian is easily one of the most talented forward at the club right now, but he would need regular game time to show what he can do consistently.

Admittedly, his best spell at Arsenal was under Unai Emery and we can only wonder how good he would have turned out if the current Villarreal manager was still in charge at the Emirates.

At 20, Martinelli still has a lot of time to reach his best self, but he might have to spend some time away from the Emirates to prove his worth to Mikel Arteta.

The likes of William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi have already done that and we can all see how they are thriving in a new environment.

Tags Gabriel Martinelli

15 Comments

  1. Can not belive how much this kid as regressed under Arteta.
    Only given chances in the sh1tty carling cup and because he doesn’t give a massive performance fans get on his back ,maybe if he got starts with the first team we might see some progress again .

    1. He’s hardly regressed. The entire hype train was based on performances in the Europa (3 goals in 7)/Carabao cup (4 goals in 2) and that quality of opposition which all of Nketiah, Willock, Nelson, Balogun, Pepe and so on had decent performances against too. In the prem in his breakout year he had 3 goals in 14. Including that Chelsea goal that was the result of an atrocious touch that put Kante on the floor. The composure afterwards was great but he only had the opportunity because his touch was that bad. In his full year under Arteta he scored 2 goals in 13 hardly a big shift in output or games to the season before. The Anelka hype was on the 10 goals for a teenager but 7 off those came in his 1st 4 starts. 2 against Forest, 2 against Liverpool youth, 2 against Standard Liege and 1 against Vitoria Guimaraes. He didn’t play in the Carabao again after the Forest/Liverpool games and failed to scored in his next 5 Europa games that year. He did add the aforementioned 3 in 14 in the Prem.

      Add in the fact he had a lengthy injury (although ESR did too) and it’s not all that surprising. He’ll come good but coming from the level he came from he was always going to need to time to work on certain areas of his game rather than hyping him to the max because of a 4 game run.

      Compare it to say Pepe who got 10 goals in 29 league apps and 6 goals in 13 in the Europa last year and it’s just odd the narrative that surrounds him.

      As a final aside Martinelli had scored 1 league goal for Arsenal when Arteta arrived and that was under Freddie not Unai. His other 5 league goals have been under Arteta. Bet most don’t even remember he’d never scored a league goal under Emery.

        1. it’s clear that your apologists leanings have no bounds…how terribly predictable and sad

    2. Dan kit, Everything is ALWAYS Artetas fault, esp when you have such a deep set total agenda against him, as all your posts show only too well!
      Nothing will give me more pleasure than seeing you and the many others who also daily post anti MA posts, having egg on your faces when we climb the table after a difficult start with our key players missing, against top opponents and against Brentford, who are doing well..
      RELENTLESS NEGATIVITY FROM A SO CALLED “SUPPORTER”!

      1. Abit like you jonny boy who constantly slags off half our team players ,or is that fine for you to do and not me just because it’s Arteta .
        I could go back and copy and paste a few if you want buddy ?

  2. one or two injuries we’ll be questioning why we loaned him. He shouldn’t only be getting extra time minutes anyways. His pace can definitely change the game alone. Truth is that this is a player Arteta simply doesnt like for whatever reason.

  3. It’s way too late in the game to send this vastly underused player elsewhere, unless it’s on a permanent basis and there’s some serious coin coming in return

    when a player of some consequence is in the fold it’s imperative that those in charge put the player in the best position to succeed

    in the case of Marts, a player who showed considerable promise early on, then suffered a serious injury that required a rather lengthy recovery period, there needed to be a definitive plan in place upon his return to full health

    this was clearly not the case, so instead of being allowed to get back on the proverbial horse, he was functionally sent out to pasture

    there’s little doubt that his continued absence has caused some justified grumblings from those within the fanbase who couldn’t quite fathom why this potentially “budding” star couldn’t get any significant playing time, especially considering the oft-times negative football on display this season and last

    unfortunately, his frustrations last winter led him to make a seemingly innocuous public comment regarding his health status, which wasn’t well-received by our increasingly fragile manager…as such, since the time of his social media faux pas, he has been little more than a periphery player

    to make matters worse, there seemed to be some issues between manager and player over his involvement in the summer Olympics…I can understand the potential complications of such a decision, especially if he had been offered assurances about playing time, but based on what has transpired so far I highly doubt they were given and even if they were I doubt they were believed

    so now we’re staring down the barrel of another potential asset management dumpster fire at the hands of our manager, who’s struggled mightily in this regards

      1. Much like our novice manager, you have an interesting knack for moving the goalposts whenever it best suits your particular “flavour of the month” narrative…just for a second, take a break from yelling incessantly from your front porch, go inside your glass house and take a good look at yourself in the mirror…HAVE A GOOD DAY!! (gosh, I hope I used my “all caps” appropriately)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

  4. He probably won’t go out on loan as he needs too stay with us for the next six months to qualify as club-trained (home-grown)

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