Martinelli proves Arsenal transfer strategy should focus on scouting not super agents

Cesc Fabregas took to social media moments after Gabriel Martinelli raced 67 yards and placed an ice-cold finish past Kepa Arrizabalaga to score his magnificent individual goal against Chelsea.

“Francis Cagigao strikes again,” tweeted Fabregas. “Legend!”

Cagigao may not be a name that is widely acknowledged throughout the Arsenal fanbase, but Fabregas certainly knows him well as he was the man who brought him to north London from Barcelona as a teenager.

And he was also the man who was the driving force behind Arsenal’s move for Martinelli in the summer. Arsenal’s head of international recruitment had indeed struck again.

The deal for Martinelli was months in the making and one that involved countless hours of scouting - both in Brazil and back in the video analysis suite at Arsenal’s London Colney training base.

Cagigao was ultimately the man who travelled to South America to personally watch the teenager in action for Ituano before the final decision was made. There were several other scouts within Arsenal’s network that also ran the rule over the young forward before the contract was finally signed.

It was a deal that perfectly showcased the importance of a football club having a quality scouting network which reaches far and wide across the globe.

Martinelli wasn’t an unknown player in Europe by any means. He had spent time with Manchester United on four separate occasions between 2015 and 2017, even lining up alongside Mason Greenwood in an Under-18s friendly against Lincoln City.

He had also had spells training in Spain within Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy, but neither club decided to pursue a permanent move for the youngster from Guarulhos, the second largest city in the state of Sao Paolo.

Arsenal, however, had no reservations. After months of scouting, Cagigao was convinced the young forward had the quality needed to be a success in England, so the Gunners made their move and the deal was done for just £6 million ($7.7m).

Now, just over six months later, that is already looking like one of the best pieces of transfer business the north London club have done in a long time.

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Martinelli’s sensational solo strike at Chelsea on Tuesday night was his 10th goal of the season. He is the first teenager to hit that mark for Arsenal since Nicolas Anelka in the 1998-99 season.

It’s impossible to say what his transfer value is now, but it is certainly far higher than the £6m the Gunners parted with last summer.

Not every transfer is going to prove to be as successful as Martinelli. There are always going to be some signings that fail to make their mark, but the more work clubs put into identifying and scouting the best talent, the better the chance of the player going on to be a success.

And for a club like Arsenal, where finances are fairly tight, that has to be the key strategy when it comes to how transfer business is done.

That is why the interest in Paris Saint-Germain left-back Layvin Kurzawa is so worrying.

Despite the French champions publicly stating there have been no discussions with Arsenal for Kurzawa, Goal has been told that the two clubs have held talks over a potential deal for the defender.

The 27-year-old is out of contract in the summer and Arsenal are hoping to take advantage of that by potentially landing him before the end of this month’s transfer window.

On the face of it, it’s a deal that could make sense if it was a loan until the end of the season. With Sead Kolasinac and Kieran Tierney both injured, Arsenal have been using teenage winger Bukayo Saka as a makeshift left-back in recent weeks.

So the experienced Kurzawa, who joined PSG from Monaco in 2015 for a fee of around £20m, could come in and do a job for six months.

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But the talks aren’t centred around a potential loan, they are for a permanent transfer - and that’s when the alarm bells start ringing.

Kurzawa is a client of Kia Joorabchian, the director of Sports Invest UK, and one of the most powerful men in football.

Joorabchian is known as one of the game’s super agents, although rather than being listed as an agent he describes his business as advising players on their rights and clubs on transfers and contracts.

Since Arsene Wenger left Arsenal, Joorabchian has become more and more of an influence at the Emirates Stadium. He is friendly with head of football Raul Sanllehi and has a close working relationship with technical director Edu.

The 48-year-old, who was born in Tehran, has become a regular presence in the directors' box on a matchday and is clearly now having a major say in the way the club conduct their transfer business, with another of his clients, David Luiz, arriving from Chelsea in the summer.

And now, if Joorabchian gets his way, Kurzawa will follow Luiz to north London either this month or at the end of the season when he is available on a free transfer.

But this is the exact type of deal that Arsenal should be steering well clear of. Kurzawa has been poor overall at PSG and his injury record is not one that provides confidence. He has done very little in the past five years to suggest another of Europe’s top clubs should be in for him.

He is 27 and with a potential five-year contract being discussed, Arsenal will soon find themselves stuck with another highly-paid player who would soon have little sell-on value.

In Tierney they have the left-back on their books that they have wanted for years. Just like Martinelli, they identified the Scotland international a long time ago and have worked hard to bring him in. Why, having finally got him, do they need to add Kurzawa to their books with Kolasinac still around as back-up?

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And the form Saka is currently showing while filling in for both hardly suggests that another left-back should be viewed as a necessity, now or in the summer.

It’s a transfer that just feels wrong. Joorabchian will no doubt benefit from it, as will Kurzawa. But would Arsenal? Judging by the player’s underwhelming stint with PSG, you would suggest it’s unlikely.

Arsenal’s focus right now in the transfer market should been landing more players like Martinelli or William Saliba, who will arrive in the summer having spent the season on loan with Saint-Etienne.

Saliba is another player the north London club worked hard to sign. First identified by Ty Gooden, Arsenal’s chief talent spotter in France, he was the subject of extensive scouting by the Gunners over the second half of the 2018-19 season before a deal was done for the 18-year-old.

At £27m he was not cheap, but Arsenal’s scouting network were adamant he was worth the money. Time will tell if that proves to be the case, but at least proper research and homework has been done on the defender unlike with Kurzawa, who wasn't even on the club's radar until he was offered to them.

With Champions League football looking unlikely again next season, money will be tight at the Emirates and owner Stan Kroenke will not be putting any of his own cash in to boost the transfer kitty in the summer.

So if Arsenal are to be successful, they need to buy well and just as importantly, they need to sell well. They need to be smart in the market.

Liverpool have shown in recent years what can be achieved. Yes, they lost some of their best players but the money they received for those deals allowed them to strengthen their squad in the areas needed to chase down Manchester City.

That needs to be the route Arsenal go down if they are to challenge once again and the capture of Martinelli shows it can be done. The focus should always be on quality scouting, not what’s being offered around by super agents.