This day in 2019, Jurgen Klopp labelled Arsenal youngster Gabriel Martinelli as a ‘talent of the century‘.
Martinelli had just scored twice for Arsenal in a League Cup defeat away to Klopp’s Liverpool side.
Fast forward two years and since that night at Anfield, Martinelli has started only 15 Premier League games.
These days, he isn’t looking like what the German manager described him as and with January approaching, it isn’t impossible that the 20-year-old Arsenal prospect could look to leave.
Even worse, it’s also possible that Mikel Arteta may let him.
Unthinkable
The Arsenal boss isn’t afraid to let huge talents leave North London in some capacity, even at the risk of his popularity, evident by the fact William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi are ripping up Ligue 1.
With Martinelli being who he is, it seems unlikely that he’d be allowed to leave on a permanent basis in January.
But even if it’s on loan, the idea of that seemed unthinkable not too long ago.
It seemed unthinkable because pre-Arteta, the Brazilian was doing the business in any and every competition that Unai Emery used him in.
Back then, Martinelli was looking every inch the talent that the Liverpool manager said he was.
But there’s no doubt that his progress has stifled since Arteta took the reins in December of that same year and he could genuinely want to leave.
The worrying thing is that whenever an elite club loans out a player, the odds of him coming back to rip things up usually falls dramatically.
But as we approach January, there will certainly be speculation about Martinelli – who has only played 159 minutes of Premier League football this season – leaving in some capacity if his fortunes don’t change.
And with the youngster not contributing all that much for Arsenal this season, Arteta may well agree to it.
He is absolutely still a massive talent, but the likelyhood of him ever fulfilling it in North London grows more unlikely every single week.
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