The only player left at Arsenal with some flair, is being offered to the Turkish side for a 45m fee. Martinelli’s camp has rejected it saying he doesn’t like it and the club either needs to find a better destination for him or he would prefer to stay. But, I’m fuming mate, and there are a lot of reasons for it.
Gabriel Martinelli joined us from Ituano in 2019, when he was a kid. He scored 3 goals in his first season in 14 games. He scored 2 and assisted 1 in the same number of games for the next season as well. 2021-22 was a breakthrough, he played 29 games and scored 6 while assisting another 6 for us. The 22-23 season was even better when he scored 15 goals (more than what Gyokeres has done) and assisted another 5. The next 2 seasons were average for him with 6/4 and 8/4 goals and asists.
Last season was one of the worst in performance from him, only 1 goal and 4 assists overall in 30 games but most of these performances were substitutions. You might think someone with that output shouldn’t even fetch a 45m fee, but there’re three things working against him.
First, Mikel Arteta’s reliance on the right side of the pitch to attack – How often do you see Saka surrounded by 3 defenders and searching for Odegaard or Gyokeres/Havertz to get out of that situation? Martinelli doesn’t have a creator behind him like Odegaard and the team usually prefers or are instructed to play on the right side of the pitch.
Second, Martinelli is instructed to hug the sideline – if you read my post history, I have been complaining about Martinelli hugging the sideline and not moving centrally like Saka does. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t want to. He has a striker instinct, and he would love to move centrally once in a while to score some like he did in the 2022-23 season. You are not going to see him score goals, if he is not allowed to go in the box.
Third, he is a yes man – he will run the length of the pitch to defend but then again, you can’t score goals if you are doing the defending. He is not Bukayo, he is the Sadio Mane or Mo Salah of Klopp’s system, and he needs freedom and confidence to take the ball and shoot. He will do what you say, but you should be asking him to beat a couple of players and score goals. We have messed up his football, and the confidence.
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Can we fix this now? No. You can’t just ask a player to leave, accept offers from Galatsaray and expect him to stay and fight for you. I would hate to see him go but it’s for his own good. This system of robotic players who like to read instructions more than playing football doesn’t suit him and we have wasted a talent Klopp said ‘the talent of the century, an incredible striker’.
So yeah, lets sell him for 45m and add another 45m on top of it to get a player who can recycle the ball for 150th time in his 90 minutes. I was under the impression that Arteta would be brave now, after winning the trophy and would try to work on the football aspect of football, but I was so wrong man. There would be another robotic and Madueke-esque addition before the transfer window closes.
I can also guarantee he would turn out to be another Martinelli because we will stick to the attack from the right side, and the LW won’t get a benefit of Odegaard behind him.
Bollocks.
MLS provides a totally different aspect of our midfield. We look more direct, and he can beat couple of players to drive ball forward – no offence to Declan Rice.
I could see the urgency today of moving the ball, we are playing well so far.
Ufraud
“ Big proper clubs play with bollocks, flair and ambition”
Exactly …your learning
3-0 and we missed an easy before half time.
By suggesting the Lame duck sacked by Chelsea, Pep has safeguarded his legacy like Ferguson did at Man U
It is fortunate Wenger just moved away
Reading the mood , Halland is moving out from the shitshow this window
Ben White is bullying Grealish. City has ruined that lad.
just a few observations thus far, keeping in mind that this match means nothing in the grand scheme:
(1) Tzolis has already learned the ways of the flopping giants…he didn’t bring those yellow card to Foden antics with him
(2) Havertz’s goal caught Dumbarumma off-guard due to the pathetic nature of his header…when he looks at that again he’ll be pissed at himself for letting that in
(3) Enzo is not the answer for a squad that already had issues with their sideways inklings under Pep last season…if he can’t figure out a way to get Cherki into the starting lineup more often it’s gong to be a long season for that Pep-wannabe fuck
(4) it’s always a good sign whenever Ode looks cool and collected in front of goal…he’s been atrocious in that perspective for several years now so maybe his World Cup performances have done him some good
(5) nothing typifies Arteta’s sideline fake news nonsense more than when he was freakng out about what he perceived to be a tugging of the shirt incident against Gabs during a set piece in the first half, when in fact it was blatantly obvious that Gabs was the perpetrator not the victim
City will have a top 4 season without any trophy and Haaland will fuck off to Madrid. They will ho back to where they belong – mediocrity.
It’s over for Martinelli, Jesus, and Nwaneri at Arsenal. I would have liked Marts to stay for another season but he is going to be in his last year of contract, and if we wanna let him go, atleast let it be for some money.
Ethan could have a good loan deal at Como – a tiny club but with a good manager and a decent ex striker as one of the shareholders. Napoli may be more interested in Martinelli than the crock. His grandfather is Italian. He and his father hold Italian EU passports.
nothing says your on your way elsewhere than being fit and not making the bench on a day where subs will be plentiful and the final result means nothing…the Ethan move could easily be viewed as Gnabry 2.0 in a few years time and that’s not me trying to be hyperbolic…just look at some of the sides who’ve been inquiring and you’ll know how he’s viewed through others eyes…Dortmund have always had a top-notch eye for talent, but I doubt they’ll stump-up the kind of money we’re asking…I wish we could have loaned him out to the German side but they’re interested in any such arrangement
as for Marts, I wish him nothing but the best…just hope he finds a club/manager who gives a flying fuck about his future development and provides him with even a modicum of help out wide…in regards to Jesus, good riddance, but not in a malicious way
Playing that tune, ‘free from desire’ seems a fitting tribute to Stubborn’s personality.
Marc—you might be right and the wrong lessons will be learned…I wouldn’t put any stock in a result against a manager who was clearly hired because he knows where all the bodies are buried…until he proves otherwise, he’s like a poor man’s Arteta, tactically-wise, and that’s not a good place to be…I do apologize to his family and friends for offering up such a comparison…on the bright side, maybe this will be a proper wake-up call
KP—if it were up to our smug as fuck manager I think he might have selected Judas Priest’s “you don’t have to be old to be wise”, whereas many of the players might opt for the very apropos “we gotta get out of this place” by the Animals
at least if Marts lands in Roma he’ll have a substantially better manager, who knows a thing or two about coaching players up so as to get the best from them
btw only 8 of the 34 Community Shield winners have gone on to win the Premier League title in the subsequent season
Vieira
I think Judas Priest also had a tune called ‘exciter’. The little bastard could never justify playing that number. Maybe a karaoke version of their other hit…spivving after midnight.
That said, the team did pretty well today and looked a million times more coherent than in the games against Dortmund and Como (coma?).
KP—ironically it’s best performed on an album called Unleashed in the East…today’s performance seemed more about City’s setup under Enzo than about us, albeit there’s no doubt that our players having been hearing it from MA all week leading up to it…I did like our early push, which isn’t too unfamiliar under MA, except that we usually don’t capitalize on our efforts…on a side note, can you imagine what the Artetites would have been saying about that Skelly foul on Anderson if it were the other way around…that said, it certainly didn’t look intentional…I wonder what Trump would have said about it lol
So Maresca is either going to have to seriously up City’s game or he’ll be out of a job by Christmas. Step one in that is replacing Donnarumma – I thought he was hitting the cliff edge age wise but I’ve just googled and he’s 27 – WTF? He used to be a quality keeper – something really not right there he was shockingly bad.
Why was Martinelli not on the bench? A typical Arteta punishment beating for not leaving? If Skelly isn’t leaving we’re now so overstocked with DM’s its a joke – Zubi, Bruno, Skelly and Rice, even Merino at a push.
All of this without a top first class option at left wing and Havertz up front. Some of our diving today was more than embarrassing.
Marc—I would suspect that Dumbarumma is still upset that he forced his way out of PSG, then they won the CL again and Pep left City…he just looks older because of his hairline
Marts wasn’t on the bench for fear that he might get injured before being shipped out…if I was him I wouldn’t want to play either, especially if he has a chance to land somewhere of his liking…he might love wearing the kit but he’s not a glutton for punishment, so he undoubtedly wants to get away from our tactically-stunted manager
as for our DM position, it might seem like a full room, but so long as MA continues to play with a supposed double-pivot, it’s probably a necessary evil…keeping in.mind that both Bruno and Skelly should be playing further up the pitch and Merino is by no means a DM, as he’s been deployed most effectively as an 8 or tucked in behind the Striker