“It’s really sad to see what Martinelli has turned into overnight. We need his replacement”- Legend Ian Wright told Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke to be in contact to sign £74M Martinelli upgrade who is now Europe’s hottest winger
Arsenal interested in ‘Europe’s best player’ upgrade on Martinelli.
Currently, Arsenal seems to be going through a really bad patch of form despite being unbeaten for about a month.
The last two Premier League matches played by Mikel Arteta’s team ended in draws, which put them six points adrift of leadership by Liverpool.
There were a lot of aspects and blows experienced during Arsenal’s season, but the most glaring source of concern would be their lackluster attack.
Worse, Gabriel Martinelli has carried the horror form along with him from the left flank last season when he produced news of whether the club was engaged in a spectacular upgrade to raise all fans’ hopes.
Arsenal transfer news
In fact, according to the latest Spanish words, Arsenal is among the many teams hungrily eying Barcelona star Raphinha.
It has also been revealed that the Gunners have already “expressed a formal interest in the Brazilian,” even as Liverpool and Manchester City by now consider the winger “an ideal option to enrich their offensive schemes”.
Interestingly, while the Catalan club did not wish to sell the 28-year old, the report did claim that financial constraints coupled with the need of registering Dani Olmo could provide an opportunity for interested parties, and while no price is mentioned in the story, reports from last month alleged an offer in the region of €90m – £74m – would tempt Barça into selling.
It is expensive and complicated transfer but should be seriously pursued, given Raphinha’s amazing ability, particularly as he would be the perfect upgrade on Martinelli.
How Raphinha compares to Martinelli
That’s the thing, if Arsenal can stay ahead of the crowd and manage to pay Barcelona enough to bring Raphinha to them next season, perhaps it isn’t really possible for him to come to the club and stay there on the bench.
In that case, he would compete directly with Martinelli for the starting place off the left, where he has primarily played this season; however, how do the two compare?
Well, from an output perspective, there is no competition at all, with the Barça ace scoring a fantastic 17 goals and providing ten assists in just 24 appearances so far, making journalist Dougie Critchley’s reasoning credible that “he’s been Europe’s best player in 24/25.
In contrast, the Arsenal ace has only scored 4 goals and managed 2 assists in 22 games, meaning his averaging is 0.27 goal involvements per match while his compatriot averages 1.12 goal involvements per game.
Okay, so what about their underlying numbers? Is the comparison just as one-sided when we look under the hood?
It indeed is, with regard to practically every relevant metric, the now-former Leeds United star coming top in all of those metrics: from expected goals and actual goals per 90, non-penalty goals plus assists, his shots and shots on target, key and progressive passes and shot and goal creating actions.
In the end, while Martinelli will still put in flashes of brilliance, Raphinha plainly presents an entirely different level on which he operates, and if he could replicate even half his output for Arsenal, they would undoubtedly pose a threat to Liverpool in the Premier League.
So it would hurt their pockets to get the lad, but the Gunners must do everything in their power to bring the Barça star as soon as possible.
