Morning. We can focus on the Community Shield and team news tomorrow, so let’s do a quick Saturday round-up, starting with Gabriel Martinelli making it clear he does not want to join Galatasaray after Andrea Berta drummed up some interest from the Turkish club via his connections there. EXCL: Gabriel Martinelli camp tell Arsenal winger has no interest in joining Galatasaray. #AFC received €45m bid from Turkish club & open to trading if suitable offers arrive but #Galatasaray not on agenda for 25yo Brazil international @theathleticfc.bsky.socialwww.nytimes.com/athletic/751… — David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 2026-08-14T15:49:06.282Z I fully understand his reluctance to go there. He’s 25, a Premier League winner, and a full Brazil international – there ought to be better options available to him if he moves. And what appears to be quite obvious is that Arsenal are trying to do that. Which makes me think, after the week we’ve had with all the drama surrounding another player, is it just an uncanny coincidence that Myles Lewis-Skelly was offered to Chelsea and Man Utd? I get that there is probably some pressure on the Sporting Director to make sales to help balance the books. That’s part of his remit and responsibility, but I have to question the way he’s going about it. Whatever our need to generate incoming revenue, and I can’t sit here this morning and say I haven’t often written about our need to sell better, offering players to clubs they have no interest in joining does not feel like a smart strategy to me. On the one hand, you could argue it alerts other clubs to their potential availability, but unless there have been open lines of communication about this tactic with the players, you run the risk of damaging relationships. My understanding is that said communication hasn’t exactly been forthcoming, so if you’re a Martinelli or a Lewis-Skelly, and you discover the club view you as sellable because stuff like this comes out, it’s got to be upsetting. Yes, they are footballers and very well paid, so your sympathy might be in short supply, but one of the cornerstones of Mikel Arteta’s time has been how he’s built a squad with real unity and togetherness. This undermines that, not just with those two players, but everyone else who will be wondering if they might be next, as well as, I’m sure, feeling a bit aggrieved on behalf of their teammates and friends. Perhaps it’s about keeping people on their toes, but I can’t help think there’s a better way to operate. I think we also have to acknowledge that Arteta is not distinct from these decisions, but the methodology of trying to make these sales doesn’t seem aligned with what we believe to be his general outlook. I could be wrong there, we know he’s a ruthless guy and when he feels your time is done at Arsenal there’s typically no coming back from that, but I worry these cack-handed attempts to make sales could well be counter-productive. In transfer news, there are reports we’re looking at Bayer Leverkusen’s Jarell Quansah as a defensive alternative to Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa who is viewed as too expensive. I don’t think any signing we make here is going to get the juices flowing, we need a solid, dependable enough back-up defender who can play in two positions. They’re not normally the most exciting arrivals. So if it’s Konsa, or Quansah, or Billy-Bob Bonsa, they’ll have to make a decision soon enough. On further incomings, Arteta said at his press conference yesterday: We are trying the maximum that we can to end up in 14 days, 13 days, in the best possible condition to compete for every possible competition. What else can he say really? He said he’s happy with his squad generally, and that there are some players who probably need to move on, which is hard to argue with. It’s worth taking a step back and remembering that we do have a very good squad, but without that addition of attacking stardust or talent, this transfer window is going to feel a bit underwhelming. Let’s see what they can come up with. He was also asked about his contract which, right now, remains unsigned, but he made positives noises on that, saying: You don’t have to worry about any of that because I want to be here, I’m extremely happy, I feel very grateful to work with the people that I work with and whenever we have the possibility we will resolve that and that’s it. There’s always another priority I think and that’s the way we’ve been treating it because everybody feels comfortable that the time on the contract is not going to be an issue. My will certainly is to be here and I’m very happy here and my feeling from the club is the same one so I think that’s why everybody is doing things in a really organic way. Right now, the transfer window is the obvious priority, and without being too cynical, Arteta not signing a new deal while pushing for the club to improve the squad with players like Vinicius Junior does give some him leverage. I don’t think that’s the main reason it hasn’t been completed, but I also don’t think it’s entirely unrelated. A small factor, perhaps. Right, I’ll leave it there for now, with more on the Community Shield game in tomorrow’s blog. If you can’t wait that long though, join us over on Patreon for a preview podcast a little later this morning. We do these, and much more, throughout the season, so if you want that, as well as supporting everything we do on Arseblog, it’s just $6 a month (+ sales tax/VAT if applicable) and we’d be delighted to have you along. You can sign up at patreon.com/arseblog, and to find out more about what your support means for the site generally, and our ability to give something back, you can find that here. A small note of advice if you’re on iOS, you can use the Patreon app of course, but please sign up via the website because if you do it in-app, Apple apply a surcharge which is out of our hands. Ok, have a great Saturday folks. The post Martinelli tells Arsenal no : Arteta on transfers and his contract appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.