Unpopular opinion: Arsenal fans have lost touch with reality if they don’t want this £75m Gabriel Martinelli replacement

I’ve genuinely seen Arsenal fans on social media complaining about Galatasaray offering ‘only’ €45m for Gabriel Martinelli, whilst urging their club not to sign Pedro Neto.

I’m not sure what planet these fans live on, but that Martinelli fee can be very easily explained with the number one, representing the number of years left on his current Arsenal contract, and the number of Premier League goals he scored last season.

This is a player that has only got worse in the last three years, and who is no longer in any way, shape, or form a promising youngster, having turned 25 earlier this summer.

Yes, time flies, but it never lies, and the clear and harsh reality now is that Martinelli has had one good season out of seven at the Emirates Stadium.

Sure, Arsenal fans have a right to be frustrated at the fact that their biggest ever sale is *still* Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain almost a decade ago, but what else is anyone realistically expecting from this particular player? Sure, at one point the Brazilian looked like a £100m star in the making, having scored 15 goals in the 2022/23 season when he was still only 21, but the same fans complaining now would also have rioted in the streets if the Gunners cashed in on him at that point, just as Mikel Arteta started building what looked like an inevitable title-winning side.

Martinelli may not have ended up being a pivotal part of that, but that’s the risk you take as a big club – if you’re not in the business of selling your best players, you will most likely keep hold of them until they either retire as a club legend (dream scenario) or enter into decline and lose their value (what happens in probably 90% of cases unless you specifically set out to be a Bournemouth or a Brighton).

Take the money and run…to Pedro Neto

So yes, €45m from Galatasaray for Martinelli as reported by the Athletic is probably a pretty good deal for Arsenal, and yes, they should very much be thinking about Chelsea’s Pedro Neto as a replacement.

It would be fair to say there hasn’t been much enthusiasm about Neto amongst online Arsenal fans, but this again comes across as severely out of touch from a fanbase still high on those unrealistic Vinicius Junior links.