Arsenal: Time to shine with Gelson Martins transfer

Arsenal target Gelson Martins has successfully negotiated his release, meaning that the hardest obstacle is out of the way. Now it’s time to shine.

Arsenal built the Emirates so that they could compete financially with the likes of Bayern Munich. They said it themselves. So, going into this transfer window with just a reported £50m, questions had to be asked about the frugality of the club when they needed funds the most.

But lo and behold, they are making it work in the best possible way. While there is still work to do, the signs are incredibly promising that the needs can be met with minimum financial investment required.

Landing Gelson Martins on a free would greatly assist this predicament. Martins, who was going to cost somewhere around £50m (also known as the complete Arsenal transfer kitty), is now a free transfer, as he negotiated his own release following training ground incidents weeks prior.

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Martins has been a coveted product of places like Bayern Munich for his ability to do so much from wide angles, something the Gunners are drastically missing.

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Now that he is free, anyone can come for him, but according to those same reports, he may well prefer a move to the Emirates over everything else.

Which, if proven to be true, is the best possible example of a team accepting the challenge and literally “shining” in terms of what they can accomplish.

This club is now on its second straight year without Champions League, they have a limited budget and, in all likelihood, they always will. There are “sexier” destinations than Arsenal in the glitz and glamour of the modern day. There is no hiding from that.

But that is why Sven Mislintat, Raul Sanllehi and that whole bunch was brought in – to work magic like this against the odds. Against the likes of teams that will overpay for anyone and everyone. This is the new brain trusts time to shine.

Martins is a fantastic solution to a big time problem – a lack of speed and width. I’m not sure how the Gunners will navigate with him and their creative masses, but that’s not for me to worry about (actually, it is).

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All I care about is this club having as much options as possible for as many situations as can be, and Martins is one such option that we currently do not have. Landing him for free would be absolutely monumental.