Gabriel Martinelli's agent, Marcos Casseb, has revealed the winger turned down offers from the Premier League, Italy and Germany before completing his £60million transfer to Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal. Meanwhile, Bruno Guimaraes has spoken about the pain of his decisive penalty miss for Brazil at the 2026 World Cup.
Martinelli's exit explained
Martinelli was seemingly forced out of Arsenal after being left out of the opening two matchday squads by Mikel Arteta, which sparked criticism from club legend Ian Wright. The Brazilian winger has started well at his new club, having already scored a hat-trick.
Casseb of Roc Nation Sports insisted the north London exit was right for all parties, telling Brazilian news outlet Itatiaia Esporte: "His time at Arsenal has come to an end. It was seven years; he arrived there at 18 years old."
"Arsenal underwent a massive restructuring and, last year, they won the Premier League. We felt it was time for him to move on, and the club had also seen it that way. It was a very good departure for him and for Arsenal. Besides everything else, he also became Arsenal's biggest-ever sale and he still helped Arsenal make a lot of money from his departure."
"Did he get offers? He did yeah. We had offers from Italian clubs, we had offers from German clubs and we had offers from other Premier League clubs but it was a moment when I think he needed and he also wanted to clear his head a bit, to change scenery."
"He went to the biggest club in Asia to be part of a very ambitious project. You can see it in the players that they have brought in, three players who were at the World Cup, each with their respective national teams and three players that are under 27."
"That's a trend in Arab football right now, they're changing the way they want to sign players. They've been trying to do that - lower the average age of the league - and their project has attracted a lot of attention. I think it was really important now for a change of scenery."
Guimaraes on his penalty regret
Bruno Guimaraes has opened up about the pain of missing a decisive penalty for Brazil during the 2026 World Cup. In July, the midfielder had his tame spot-kick saved with the score level at 0-0 during Brazil's last-16 clash with Norway, after which Erling Haaland led his nation to a 2-1 victory.
Guimaraes went on to seal a move from Newcastle to Arsenal later in the summer, though he admits missing the vital penalty for his country is a pain he hasn't been able to get over.
The Gunners' summer signing said: "Moving on from what happened, obviously it's a wound, a scar, it's very recent, it still hurts me, it still hurts a lot that this happened. But it's part of football."
"May I learn from my mistakes. Often you learn from victory, but normally we learn from defeat, from what didn't work out. I will continue my daily struggle, my dreams… If there's another penalty and it's awarded to me, I won't hide, I'll take it again a thousand times, because representing this shirt means a lot to me, it's always been my biggest dream."
"It wasn't a good moment, I suffered a lot, but it's time to move on. You can't change the past, but you can change the future."
"After an elimination, you end up seeing a lot of conspiracies about things that don't make any sense," he added. "Before the game, we always have our pre-game talk, and the coach decides who will take the penalty."
"I was the guy chosen to take it. Right then, some players wanted to grab the ball. One player takes it, passes it to another, even trying to fool the goalkeeper. And that's what happened, nothing out of the ordinary."
"Vini (Vinicius Junior) wasn't the designated penalty taker. I was the one who should have taken the penalty. I took the penalty, I missed, I could have scored. That's part of football. We're sad about the criticism of Vini, but it was my turn to take it."
