Forever a Gunner ❤️
The club can confirm that Gabriel Martinelli has joined Al-Hilal on a permanent deal.
Thank you for everything and best of luck, Gabi 🤝
Staggering that Arsenal, the champions, end the window with a weaker attack than they started. Four out, one in at the top end of the pitch. It's a real struggle to make much sense of.
They could still be fine. They have plenty of options. But they now have to cross their fingers and hope injuries do not become a massive factor (unlike the last two seasons).
They were ambitious in terms of who they went for. But if you don't pull any of those deals off, then does it really matter? Now they look short in the one area of the pitch where they were already lacking real difference makers.
Defensively they are stacked, as they are in midfield. The additions of Guimaraes and Konsa are excellent. The type of deals that champions do. Hopefully that will be enough and the attackers they do still have stay injury free. If they do, they should still have enough, and there should also be healthy funds to attack the January window.
But despite that, it's impossible not to think the window has been mismanaged from an attacking point of view. However it is dressed up, ending it like this clearly wasn't the plan.
Will be sad to see Martinelli go. We’ve watched him grow and he’s been a big part of this journey - had some major moments too. Always professional, never complained, but it feels like the right time to part ways.
Would still be useful here but has stagnated slightly and one of our few (big money) sellable assets. Sometimes you have to make these hard calls.