Arsenal: Does Gabriel Martinelli take away from the budget?

On Tuesday, Arsenal officially announced the signing of Gabriel Martinelli. However, does his reported £6 million fee come out of this summer’s budget, and if so, is he worth it?

Arsenal have just announced the signing of Gabriel Martinelli and, while his signing is exciting for the future, I cannot help but wonder if the money paid for him has come out of this window’s budget.

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With a reported budget of only £40 million to spend on new talent this summer, Unai Emery has certainly got his work cut out for himself.

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With four key positions to fill, center-back, left-back, a box-to-box midfielder and a winger, and no real hope of being able to bring in anyone of a world-class caliber for the cash that he has, Emery has turned to youth to help Arsenal build for the future.

This is not just evidenced by the latest signing of Martinelli but also in the apparent interest in William Saliba and Kieran Tierney. Both of these players are young talents who could develop into potential stars if given the right coaching and amount of game time.

The question I’m asking myself is whether or not the money that has been spent on Martinelli, which is rumored to be around £6 million, is coming out of this window’s transfer budget.

If it is, and using the assumption that the budget this year is £40 million, that leaves Arsenal with £34 million. It isn’t exactly rocket science to work out that that money won’t cover the four positions that still need to be filled.

It could be argued that Martinelli covers the wing position and can, therefore, fill that need, as he can play on both the left and the right side if required. However, he is more naturally a striker and it wouldn’t be wise to stifle his future development by once again trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, as we’ve seen that all too many times before with the likes of Alex Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. He is also 18 years of age and is moving to Europe for the first time. That is the most reliable of prospects.

July looks like a busy month of incomings and outgoings for Arsenal, and whilst I hope we see at least 2 or 3 more signings, unless the budget is increased by the sale of a big player, I can only see the club signing one player who would make an instant impact.

Hopefully the transfer team can cut the deadwood in the squad and pull a few rabbits out of the hat to surprise and excite us before we get into the real silly season of the late transfer window, but at this stage, the prospects are a little bleak. And Martinelli’s arrival, however exciting, does not hugely help change the outlook.