Ian Wright Urges Arsenal to Show More Respect to Gabriel Martinelli

Ian Wright says Gabriel Martinelli deserves “more respect” from Arsenal and has questioned how the club are handling the winger’s possible exit.

Martinelli, 25, played 53 games in all competitions last season, scored 11 goals and helped Arsenal over the line in a title-winning campaign. He was part of the story. Now he is nowhere near the pitch.

Left out of the squad entirely for Friday’s Premier League opener against Coventry – a 3-0 win at the Emirates – the Brazilian was also missing from the Community Shield victory over Manchester City. At the same time, Arsenal have made it clear they are open to offers.

For Wright, that crosses a line.

“The way Martinelli is being treated at the moment, it really makes me feel uncomfortable,” the former Arsenal striker told Sky Sports. “I know they might want him out, and a lot of people might say, ‘yeah, it’s time for him to move him on’. But there’s ways of doing that and it should suit him as well, how he wants to leave.

“Not being involved in the squad, not being spoken to, he doesn’t know what’s going on. And yes, I know this – he doesn’t know what is happening.

“He’s done enough with this squad to be treated with a little bit more respect than he’s being treated with at the moment.”

A title winner on the outside

Martinelli arrived from Ituano in 2019 as a raw, fearless forward and has grown with the club through Mikel Arteta’s tenure. He has been a constant presence in the first-team group and a popular figure in the dressing room.

Now, with Arsenal looking to push on from their Premier League triumph, he appears to be one of the first big names pushed towards the exit as the champions try to refresh while on top.

Inside the club, the message is different. Arsenal deny freezing him out and point instead to their attacking depth. New signing Christos Tzolis impressed on the left wing against Coventry, operating in Martinelli’s preferred zone and underlining the competition for places.

Arsenal also tried to go even bigger in that area of the pitch. They moved for Vinicius Jr before the Brazilian star committed his future to Real Madrid, a pursuit that underlines how ruthlessly they are upgrading the squad.

For Wright, that hierarchy matters.

“If you bring Vini in, Martinelli can say to himself, ‘OK, they’ve brought him in, they’ve brought Tzolis in, I might be third [in the pecking order],’” he said.

“But if you bring Tzolis in and have [Noni] Madueke on the other side, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘I can still have it with these two, I’ve got something to offer’.

“For him to be nowhere near it, it just makes me feel a bit sad for him.”

Arsenal’s sale calculus

Behind the emotion sits a cold reality. Arsenal want at least one major outgoing before the transfer window closes and have made it clear to clubs that Martinelli is available.

Inside the recruitment department, he is viewed as one of their most valuable saleable assets, alongside striker Gabriel Jesus and midfielder Fabio Vieira. A player in his prime, with Premier League and title-winning experience, carries serious market weight.

Martinelli has already rejected a move to Galatasaray. If he goes, he wants the next step to be at a top European club, not a sideways move or a step down from Champions League contention.

Arteta did not name Martinelli directly when asked before the Coventry game about the possibility of established players being moved on, but his answer left little doubt about the stance.

“It’s a really tough moment, but you need to face that reality,” he said. “You need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that’s exactly what you need.

“You might not like what you’ve been told, but if it’s truthful, if it’s the reality, if it’s honest and it’s going to help you to make better decisions and have more clarity for the next steps in your career, you have to do that.

“Everything has a start and has an end. And when it comes to the end, our duty, and our responsibility is to do it in the best possible way, maintaining the respect and admiration for the player and the relationship, but understanding that at the end, we need to make football decisions.”

The football decision at Arsenal seems clear. The question now is whether the respect Wright demands will match the ruthlessness of the champions’ rebuild – and where a title-winning winger finds his next stage.