Arsenal: Gelson Martins and all else must come second

Arsenal are being linked with a move for Sporting Lisbon winger Gelson Martins. The attacker, though, like almost all else in his position, must come to second to defensive reinforcements.

The transfer rumour mill really is in full swing now. Arsenal, as they are every year, are being linked with a myriad of different players, from young, burgeoning centre-halves to out-of-their-league attackers who may only join once in a blue moon.

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The latest name to be relatively strongly rumoured to be the subject of a possible move to the Emirates is Sporting Lisbon winger Gelson Martins, who has reportedly attracted the Gunners’ interest after an impressive season for the Portuguese club, leading them to a third-placed finish.

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The 23-year-old — and he has only just turned 23, which makes his potential all that more enticing — is coming off the best season of his career with 13 goals and 13 assists in all competitions. He has played almost exclusively as a right winger — 32 starts came at the attacking midfield-right position last season — and is blessed with searing speed and deceptive quality in the final third. He would be a very astute, though expensive signing.

It is reported that his contract has a release clause worth £52.7 million and with Lisbon obviously wanting to keep hold of their best players, it is fair to assume that Arsenal would need to get fairly close to that valuation to prise him away. And while Martins, in and of himself, may be worth such an outlay, it is difficult to reason how this squad is best-served by investment in another attacker.

Now, this is not a point for just Martins. This goes for all of the attackers that have been linked with the Emirates this summer — Ousmane Dembele, Anthony Martial, Emil Forsberg, just to name a few. Given the disastrous shortcomings at other areas in the team, it would be a hugely misguided way to invest fairly limited resources.

That is not to say that Arsenal do not need a pacy, direct, defence-beating winger. They do. But their struggles in other areas, most pertinently at centre-half, goalkeeper and defensive midfielder, dictate where their spending must come this summer. Their priorities must lie in other areas of the team.

Martins, then, must play second fiddle in the grand scheme of potential transfer targets. That does not mean that he should not be of interest later in the window after some key signings have been made and if there is still some money left to invest, but, for now, he, like every winger, striker and attacking midfielder in the world, must come second.

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Martins simply isn’t needed as much as other players in other positions. It is, at the end of it all, a question of compromise.