Galatasaray make £38.5m bid for Arsenal player

Galatasaray have submitted an official €45m bid for Gabriel Martinelli, though the player isn’t pushing to leave Arsenal at this stage.

Florian Plettenberg broke the news on Wednesday that Galatasaray had submitted an official €45m (£38.5m) bid for Gabriel Martinelli, adding that the winger is currently the Turkish club’s top transfer priority.

James McNicholas and Adam Leventhal confirmed the news for The Athletic, reporting that Arsenal have indeed received a €45m bid.

The Athletic report that Martinelli is not pushing to leave, and that he’d expect to move to one of Europe’s strongest leagues if he did. The Turkish league has made some strong player additions this summer, but perhaps they still don’t fit into that bracket.

Turkish journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu suggests that Arsenal are pushing for €60m, and that the club would be more open to selling Ethan Nwaneri for the figures Galatasaray are currently offering. Though the same reporter has since suggested Martinelli is still the favourite for a move.

It’s worth bearing in mind that €45m is a very large bid for a Turkish club to make. Galatasaray have only made one signing in their history for more than that (Victor Osimhen from Napoli), and no other club in the Super Lig has ever paid more than €45m for a player.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bid Arsenal should accept, but it’s useful for understanding the context of negotiations. The Gunners simply aren’t going to get £70-80m from a club like Galatasaray at this point in time.

The next few days should give us a strong sense of the direction of travel. If Martinelli is completely unwilling to consider a move to the Super Lig, or if Galatasaray won’t up their bid, then the deal will be off.

But if Martinelli and Galatasaray show a willingness to continue talks, there could be something in this.

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