When he arrived as a skinny kid from the Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, no one could have predicted the impact he would have.
2 July 2019 we announced the signing of Gabriel Teodoro Martinelli Silva. Barely legal, he was playing in the fourth division of the Brazilian football league system. Martinelli was not even on the radar of his national team, failing to play at any level for Brazil prior to joining The Arsenal.
Expected to go into our Premier League 2 squad, we blogged at the time that his recruitment sent a negative message to those in our academy.
The youth team of that time included the likes of Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Folarin Balogun and Xavier Amaechi.
We had such a wide array of young, English, attacking talent in our academy that I just did not understand why we were bringing in someone from Brazil.
I did, however, state:
“If the club considered Martinelli as already better than Nketiah and Nelson, I would understand it more. He would be coming in to the 1st squad, able to contribute straight away.”
And as it turned out, the skinny kid from Brazil would quickly become part of Unai Emery’s first team squad.
Martinelli’s impressive pre-season and quality in training encouraged Emery that he would be ready for immediate first-team integration.
It was testiment to his attitude that from the day he joined, he listened, learned, and worked hard. 4-years on he is still continually praised for the way he applies himself in training, and it is that which has turned him from unknown from Brazil to one of the best left wingers in the world.
A little more than a month after signing, Martinelli made his debut – coming on in the 84th minute as a substitute for Henrikh Mkhitaryan against Newcastle.
In just his second game for the club, ands his first start, he would score twice against Championship side Nottingham Forest in the League Cup.
His performance received praise from Emery, who said: “He’s hungry to have that opportunity to help us, he is very humble, he fights. I told him to have some patience for his opportunity to do like he was doing. He did that. He deserved it”
A week after, he would get another 2-goals in the Europa League against Standard Liege. What was exciting is how different his goals were.
He was showing he had the strikers instinct with goals from within the 6-yard box. He was beating men and curling them in from the edge of the box. And rising high despite his slight frame to head them in.
4 goals in his first 3 games would turn into 7 from 7 as he continued to take advantage of playing in the Europa League and League Cup.
When we failed to make Champions League football, I mentioned that one benefit could be that the lower tier would give opportunities to some of our talented youngsters.
It was the Europa League in 2019 that saw both Martinelli and Saka display their talents in the Arsenal shirt. Neither looked back (and a year later the Europa League gave Smith Rowe his chance!).
After a brace against Liverpool in the League Cup, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp labelled him the “talent of the century”.
No longer was he a skinny kid from Brazil signed to play in our academy. He was now of the most exciting young attacking talents on the planet.
Martinelli would become the first Arsenal teenager to reach double figures since Nicolas Anelka. He would finish the season with 10 goals from 26 games.
Despite only having joined a year earlier, Martinelli would sign a new 5-year deal in 2020. Testiment to his position in Arsenal’s first team squad. Then disaster struck.
As football began to prepare for its return following the Covid break, Martinelli sustained a knee injury in training that would rule him out until the end of 2020.
Martinelli would undergo surgery to repair a lesion in the cartilage of his knee. At such a young age, this sort of injury could have changed the path of his career.
At the FA Cup final in 2020, you could not help but feel sorry for him as he hobbled around Wembley on his crutches. His first season with the club ended early through injury and future potentially in doubt.
Hi return to the Arsenal first team squad took time.
Mikel Arteta clearly understood the impact rushing a young a player back from injury could have on their long term fitness. The manager resisted the urge to “sling him straight back in” even though there was plenty of noise from fans calling for him to start.
This led some sections of the fanbase to criticise Arteta, claiming he did not understand the talent Martinelli had. The truth is Mikel was just protecting Martinelli. And a couple of minor set-backs during recovery would prove Arteta right.
Come 2021/22, with a full pres-season under his belt, Martinelli looked fighter, stronger and quicker.
He has clearly worked extremely hard on the training ground and in the gym, ensuring that he was physically ready to become a top Premier League player.
Martinelli would start 21 times in the Premier League, scoring 6, assisting 6.
On the opposite wing was Saka. He had kicked on to the next level scoring 11 and assisting 7. It was felt by many that Martinelli was the level below, and that we perhpas needed to be looking at an upgrade.
The summer of 2022 felt like a bit of a crossroads for Martinelli, Arteta and Arsenal.
Do we continue progressing this young brazilian talent, now 21. Or do we go out into the market and sign a top, top left winger and have Martinelli as 2nd choice.
We did look who was out there. Talk of Raphina and a big money move for Ukranian starlet Mykhailo Mudryk. In the end no deals got over the line and we would start 2022/23 with Martinelli as our first choice left winger.
Martinelli would take his game up a level, showing the benefits once again of working hard and listening in training. He would quickly become one of the best left wingers in England.
In January, talk of Mudryk raised its head again. Like many, I scratched my head as to why we were looking to spend so much on him. In Martinelli we had someone who I felt was putting in better, more consistent performances at a higher level.
Mudryk went to Chelsea, Arsenal signed Leandro Trossard, and Martinelli would finish the season with 15 league goals from the left wing.
This summer there has been zero talk of us signing another left winger. Martinelli is now someone who could start for any time in the Premier League, including Manchester City.
Transfermarkt value Martinelli as the 5th most expensive left winger in the world.
Vinicius Junior, Phil Foden, Rafael Leao and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are the 4 ranked above him. Martinelli is younger than them all.
Marcus Rashford, Luis Diaz, Jack Grealish, Kingsley Coman and Neymar round out the top 10.
Martinelli is probably unlucky that he plays in the same era as Vinicius Junior and Neymar. Their presence in the Brazilian national team has seen him win just 6 caps for his country. If he was English he would probably be closing in on 30 caps.
And it is probably only his two compatriots that are better than Martinelli.
I certainly would not want to replace him with Leao, Kvaratskhelia , Rashford or Diaz. They are all probably at the same level alongside Martinelli as “next best”.
In February this year, Martinelli signed a new long term deal. The new terms establishing himself as one of Arsenal’s top earners.
Signed for £6m, it would probably take a bid north of £100m to pry him from Arsenal (it will not happen).
Taking into account what he has already contributed, looking forward to what he could achieve in the future, and that price tag, I think Martinelli is the best Arsenal signing in 20-years.
The last player we plucked from no-where, paying pennies, who went on to become a key fixture in our first team was Kolo Toure.
Toure was signed from Ivorian side ASEC Mimosas for just £150k in 2002. He would become a regular in our invincible side and play 326 times for That Arsenal.
Before Toure, we are probably looking at Freddie Ljungberg as the next one plucked from obscurity to become a superstar.
Martinelli now needs to back up last season, build on his 15 goals and 5 assists. I see no reason why he can not finish next season with 20 goals and 10 assists in all competitions from that left wing. He is that good.
Our best signing in the last 20 years. Martinelli could become one of Arsenal’s greatest signings of all tiem.
The future’s bright. The future’s Arsenal.
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