We have a problem with the left wing. And no, I am not talking about those idiots that protest on The Bear’s roundabout. I am talking about on the pitch.
Whilst we can all now name 3 or 4 strikers who could come in and take us to the next level (Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, Ollie Watkins, Julian Alvarez), the left wing does not present as many simple solutions.
The headache for new Sporting Director Andrea Berta is any big money signing on the left must be better than Gabriel Martinelli. And that is not easy.
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For me, Martinelli has been unfairly labelled as not good enough by some fans. This is simply not true.
With 16 caps for Brazil (in a Brazil side with the likes of Neymar Jr, Vinicius Jr, Raphina and Rodrygo), Martinelli is a top, top left winger. He has a good mixture of pace, technical ability and work rate. But I also concede that he is not on Bukayo Saka’s level. He is not world class.
Whilst Martinelli might not be world class, I would say he is the level below. That means that if we are spending big, the player that comes in has to be world class. So who are those world class options that would come in and improve on Martinelli?
For me, there is probably only one world class left winger in world football right now – Vinicius Jr. He really is the stand out player in that position, with all the others in and around the same level. We are not signing Vinicius Jr.
Rodrygo is a name that has been floated about a lot. Currently playing on the right wing, the feeling of many (including the player himself) is that he would flourish better on the left. But Real Madrid have the aforementioned Vinicius Jr. Would he be an improvement on Martinelli? Perhaps. But would he improve us enough to see us spank £80m on him? I am not sure.
And there are a lot of players in that “I am not sure” category.
Rafael Leao is another who, like Rodrgyo, has had a lot of hype about him over the years but never really taken his game to the next level. Then you have the likes of Luis Diaz, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Raphina. Another 3 excellent players (all of whom are unobtainable for Arsenal right now).
Nico Williams is a player who I have long been a fan of (long before it became popular to be a fan of him). But he continues to flatter to deceive. A great player in a season long highlights package, but no where near consistent enough. Bradley Barcola is the same.
And this is the problem for many of the players we have listed to replace Martinelli. None of them have shown any more consistency throughout their career than our Gabi. And certainly not consistently shown the level for us to spend £60-80m on them.
So what are our options?
For me the best option could be to look at the Champions. Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah aside, they do not have any world class attacking talent. But what they do have is a group of forwards who are all that level below world class. that level Martinelli is at.
Darwin Nunez, Diego Jota, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo.
On their own, as the main man, none are consistent or talented enough to be world class. But when you have the 4 of them, you can rely on squad depth and hot streaks to get you through. And this is perhaps where Arsenal need to be looking.
Instead of going for the £60-80m mark and ending up with someone only marginally better than Martinelli, we need to look at the £50m and under mark and sign someone who can dovetail with Martinelli. Can play 60 / 30 minutes during a game keeping the pressure on. Players that give us the squad depth without breaking the bank.
That valuation then brings in the likes of Jamie Gittens, Kaoru Mitoma, Antoine Semenyo or Bradley Barcola.
These sort of players might not make you go “wow” but in the grand scheme of things, they might be a better option for us than spending £30-40m more on a player who is not much better, but carries more hype.
My feeling is we are likely to act quickly in the transfer market this summer. We will see the central midfielder and striker come in quickly. But the left wing upgrade might take a little while longer, and he might not even be an upgrade on Martinelli, but will still upgrade the squad.
**Keenos**