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Your weekly briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Matt Verri
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Gabriel Martinelli's Arsenal career is bookended by two contrasting ownership declarations.
He signed for the Gunners in the summer of 2019, arriving for £6million from Brazilian side Ituano.
Martinelli joined a club battling tension at all levels. Unai Emery had just overseen a league collapse and a European final defeat to Chelsea, while the Kroenkes faced angry accusations from several supporters' groups that they simply did not care.
Just a couple of weeks after Martinelli's arrival, Josh Kroenke's statement for the defence was a clear reminder to the Brazilian of what he was joining.
“As much as we would love to say that we’ll be competing for the top trophies tomorrow, we know that that’s not the case," Kroenke said.
Martinelli was there for the final five months of Emery's reign and he has been there for the full six-and-a-half years under Mikel Arteta that have followed.
He now leaves the club as a Premier League champion and with Kroenke having a very different message to share.
"Our focus is now on building on our success this season and beyond," the co-chair said last week.
"Champions don't stand still; they evolve and keep moving forward."
That evolution necessitates ruthless decisions and selling Martinelli is one of those.
The 25-year-old was not pushing to leave. He has an incredibly strong affinity to the club and is settled off the pitch, having got married last month.
However, Arsenal have been open to selling Martinelli in recent windows and that intensified this summer.
