Record £55.7m Martinelli sale, Jesus to Barcelona, Vieira to Hamburg: Arsenal clear the decks in one Sunday
Sky Sports put the Martinelli / Al-Hilal agreement at £55.7m — the biggest sale in Arsenal's history. On the same day, a deal agreed in principle at £8.6m with Barcelona for Gabriel Jesus and an agreement at around £7.7m with Hamburg for Fábio Vieira. Three exits, roughly £72m, and not one official statement so far.
⚠️ UPDATE (1 September 2026) — Two of the three exits described here are now official: Gabriel Jesus has signed for Barcelona and Fábio Vieira for Hamburg. Ethan Nwaneri left on loan to Dortmund shortly after. The verified detail is in the updated article: Jesus to Barcelona, Vieira to Hamburg, Nwaneri on loan at Dortmund.
We all knew Martinelli would leave eventually. What we didn’t know was that it would happen at £55.7m, and that two more forwards would go out of the door on the same day. As I write this, not one of the clubs involved has published a statement.
What is confirmed
Sky Sports put the agreement between Arsenal and Al-Hilal at £55.7 million for Gabriel Martinelli on 30 August. It is a club record: until now the biggest sale was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in 2017, at around £40m. The same day, Fabrizio Romano confirmed a verbal agreement worth more than 65 million euros including add-ons, and wrote that the Brazilian has been given permission to travel to Saudi Arabia within 24 hours to complete the formalities. The contract on the table runs for four years at around 20 million euros a season.
Gabriel Jesus follows him out, heading for Barcelona. Again per Sky Sports, the two clubs have agreed in principle at £8.6m. The details are being settled now, and the Brazilian could travel to Spain as soon as Monday. Arseblog followed the story up the same day.
Fábio Vieira is already on the road to Germany. Hamburg take him permanently for around £7.7m according to Sky Sports; on the German side, Get German Football News put the fee at around 9 million euros, with a four-year contract after the medical. That ends a standoff which began in May, when Arsenal wanted up to 18 million and Hamburg wanted to stay under 10.
The three exits together bring in roughly £72m, which pushes the summer’s sales to around £117m.
What is not confirmed
Nothing is signed. Neither Arsenal, nor Al-Hilal, nor Barcelona, nor Hamburg have said anything, and that is exactly why all three files stay at “clubs agreed” on the site rather than “official”. We move them on the day the statement lands, not before. The last weekend of a window can turn.
Then there’s the question that actually bothers me: who is coming in? The only attacking file still alive is Julián Álvarez, and it does not depend on Arsenal. Atlético gave the Argentine until Sunday to decide, stay or open up to a move to London, and have repeated publicly that they will not sell him to Barcelona. Romano summed up the English position in a sentence: if the player or his agent call, Arsenal will be ready. Except the club will not move before that, and currently believe it unlikely he comes. No bid lodged, and an asking price still above £120m.
The context
Martinelli’s exit had been building for three weeks. Left out of the Community Shield, then of the squads against Manchester City and Coventry, he no longer had a role, and Arteta half-acknowledged it in his press conference, talking about “the numbers we have in the squad” and “personal situations”. Seven years in the shirt, 278 games, 62 goals and a title last season, and he ends up going out through the side door at a price nobody imagined a year ago.
Jesus never recovered from the knee injury of January 2025: three Premier League starts last season, for a player bought from Manchester City for £45m in 2022. The loss hurts, even if the club frees up one of its biggest salaries along the way. Vieira, who arrived from Porto for 35 million euros the same year, leaves for a quarter of that after a good loan season at Hamburg.
Sources and reliability
- Sky Sports (30/08) — Martinelli agreement at £55.7m, Jesus agreed in principle at £8.6m with Barcelona, Vieira agreed at around £7.7m with Hamburg. Top-tier source.
- Fabrizio Romano, via Goal (30/08) — verbal agreement worth more than €65m, permission to travel within 24 hours. Top-tier source.
- Arseblog News (30/08) — follow-up on the Jesus and Vieira files.
- Get German Football News (30/08) — final fee around €9m on the German side, four-year contract.
Status applied: TRÈS FIABLE on all three files, progress CLUBS AGREED. Not “official”, for want of a statement.
Our take
Selling Martinelli for £55.7m is, coldly, very good business. He was 27, with a contract running to 2027 and a role that had shrunk, and nobody in Europe would have put that money on the table. On the accounts, Berta has done his job.
What bothers me is the rest of it. We let three forwards go in a single day and still nobody is arriving; Tzolis is first choice on the left because he is the one left standing, not because that was the plan. We have two days for this Sunday to look like a rebuild rather than a clear-out, and it hangs on a phone call that has to come from Madrid.