Brazilian pundit and former player Neto believes there was a conspiracy to get Gabriel Martinelli called up for the World Cup.

Jose Ferreira Neto, who made a few appearances for Brazil in the early nineties, appeared on TV Bandeirantes this week to complain about the Brazil World Cup squad.

From Dani Alves to Raphinha, Neto had plenty of issues with the list of call-ups, but perhaps the most amusing was his take on Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli.

Claiming that Gabigol should have been called up ahead of Martinelli, Neto argued that the Arsenal winger only received a spot thanks to underhand tactics from Juninho and Edu Gaspar.

“Calling up Martinelli shows that you, Tite, shouldn’t hold the position you do,” Neto said. “And not taking Gabigol, the guy who scored the goal of the Libertadores title, who scored 29 goals in the season.

“I doubt that Martinelli will not be sold from Arsenal! And how much will Ituano, who belonged to Juninho Paulista, take? And who took Tite to the national team? Edu Gaspar! And who is Arsenal’s football manager? Ah, it’s Edu!”

In case it’s not clear what Neto is claiming, he believes that Tite has called up Martinelli to raise the player’s value, so Edu can sell him and Arsenal and Ituano can cash in.

With Juninho previously owning Ituano and currently working as Brazil’s national team coordinator, he’s supposedly involved too. Though it’s not clear how formerly owning Ituano will make him any money from Martinelli’s sale.

Tite’s motivation in this conspiracy is also a bit shaky. The implication from Neto’s comments is that Tite is doing Edu a favour because Edu got him the Brazil job. But the reality is that Tite brought Edu to the national team, not the other way around!

Unfortunately, the truth is likely much more boring. Martinelli got a call-up because he’s been in excellent form for the top team in the best league in the world, and Arsenal really have no need to artificially boost his value.