‘I feel ashamed’: Brazilian pundit left furious after news about Arsenal’s £6m man this week
Brazilian football pundit Neto is not a happy man after Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli was called up to his country’s World Cup squad earlier this week.
Tite named his side on Monday and after many felt Martinelli could just miss out, the Brazil boss hailed his ‘aggressiveness’ and named him in his side. That seems to have angered Neto, who thinks the Arsenal man does not deserve the call-up.
Pundit furious after Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli gets called up to Brazil’s World Cup squad
Brazil have a number of truly sensational attackers.
They are certainly one of the favourites to win the World Cup this year, but Neto does not seem to agree with Tite’s selection of Martinelli and Dani Alves.
The pundit even went on to claim that ‘nobody knows who he is,’ while talking about Martinelli, before claiming that Flamengo’s Gabriel Barbosa, aka Gabigol, was much more worthy of a place in the side.
Speaking on Os Donos da Bola, Neto said, as quoted by ESPN: “This is a shame, a joke! I feel ashamed! Not because of Dani Alves’ story. What is Martinelli’s story? 33 career goals. This is a shame, a lack of respect for football.
“Doing this with football shows that you don’t deserve the position you are in. Calling up Martinelli and not calling up Gabigol is heresy, a lack of respect. The biggest shame of all the call-ups.
“Calling up Martinelli shows that you, Tite, shouldn’t hold the position you do, because you’re not fair to Gabigol.
“The guy (Martinelli) who scores five goals in the season, who walks around the mall here, nobody knows who he is… And not taking Gabigol, the guy who scored the goal of the Libertadores title, who scored 29 goals in the season.”
Our View:
That seems a bit too harsh, doesn’t it?
Martinelli definitely doesn’t have the goal return that Gabigol does, but one is playing for the team at the top of the Premier League, while the other plays in the Brazilian top flight, which is incomparable to the best league in the world.
The £6 million (Goal) Arsenal man has been magnificent so far this season. He may have only scored five goals, but he’s one of the biggest reasons why the Gunners are where they are in the league table.
We don’t know about Neto, but we feel Martinelli completely deserves his opportunity.
