Gabriel Martinelli is an Al-Hilal player. Arsenal receive €58 million guaranteed with a further €8 million in bonuses, around £56.5 million all in, and no club has ever paid Arsenal more for a player.
The record is the headline and the least interesting part. Martinelli is 25, he had spent stretches of the last two seasons as a rotation option in a side that won the league, and Arsenal have taken a club-record fee for a player who was not certain to start. That is a good piece of business rather than a raid.
He arrived from Ituano for about £6 million in 2019 and leaves seven years later having been, for one full season, one of the best wingers in England. Selling at the top of a market rather than the top of a career is the trade Arsenal have made.
The timing is the cost. The window shuts at 11pm on Tuesday, so any replacement is whoever is available in five days rather than whoever Arsenal would pick in June, and they have already committed £75 million to Bruno Guimarães this summer.
For Al-Hilal it is a second Premier League forward inside a week, alongside Ollie Watkins, after taking Tijjani Reijnders from Manchester City earlier in the window. The Saudi Pro League is no longer shopping only for players at the end of things.