Gabriel Martinelli: If I can, I’ll stay here my whole life | OneFootball

Back in March, Gabriel Martinelli said he will stay at Arsenal for his whole life if he gets the opportunity to do so, making Chelsea’s reported interest in him pointless.

Chelsea are reportedly ‘monitoring’ Gabriel Martinelli with an eye on making a ‘shock move’ for the forward, according to The S*n, but this is one rumour that is all but guaranteed to go nowhere.

Speaking to the Brazilian media in March 2022, Gabriel Martinelli suggested he’d happily stay with Arsenal for the rest of his career.

“Arsenal are a giant team. If I can, I’ll stay here my whole life,” Martinelli said.

“I want to conquer things, I already said, I want to stay here and win titles, with this wonderful crowd, my teammates.

“We have a young group, we have a lot of time ahead of us, players with a lot of quality, I think we will achieve great things.

“Our focus (today) is the Champions League. Fighting for that top 4. A club like Arsenal has to be in the Champions League.”

This isn’t the first major claim Martinelli has made about his future with Arsenal. Just a few weeks before, he argued that Arsenal were well-positioned to fight it out with the best teams on the planet in the future.

“We are so young,” Martinelli pointed out. “The oldest player in the game against City was Laca, but a lot of players are 22, 23, 24.

“We have time to improve and we are going to do that. One hundred percent — we will be one of the best teams in the world.”

It’s certainly hard to deny just how young the team is. The 18 youngest lineups in the Premier League last season were all named by Arsenal. This year, their squad is second behind Southampton, but there is little in it.

The Gunners were the only team in the league to name a side with an average age below 24 last season.

If the likes of Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, and Bukayo Saka commit their long-term futures to the club, that will give the project its best shot at success.