Arsenal are reportedly closing in on bringing Edu to the club as Technical Director and the club will make Gabriel Martinelli their first signing.

Although Edu has been linked with the job in the past it was claimed he did not want to leave his role as coordinator of the Brazil national teams. Now, however, he will join Arsenal after Brazil host the Copa America this summer according to the Mail on Sunday.

The report, as you can read above, also claims that Martinelli will become the club’s first signing.

Over the weekend it was claimed that Arsenal were ‘on the verge’ of signing the 17-year-old forward.

That fits with rumours in late March, when it was claimed Arsenal had finalised a deal to sign the player, but they were just waiting on Martinelli obtaining his Italian passport. There have been differing reports on how long that would take, with some rumours he’ll have it this month, and others that it won’t be until June.

Martinelli drew a lot of attention in this year’s Campeonato Paulista, as he scored six goals and assisted three in 14 appearances. That put him just one goal off the competition’s top scorer and two assists off the top assist provider, despite his age.

Unfortunately, Ituano went out of the competition in the quarter-final stage to Sao Paulo, who are now in the final. As a result, Martinelli has had some time off this month, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he did make some progress on his future. We’ll find out soon enough.