Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney has picked out Gabriel Martinelli as the player who impressed him most when he arrived at the club last summer, claiming the Brazilian was “honestly mindblowing”.
Tierney was a £20million deadline day signing from boyhood club Celtic, but was injured when he joined the Gunners and was not initially able to train with the rest of the first team.
Fellow new boy Martinelli, however, was already making a big impression, the teenager starting life in an Arsenal shirt in prolific goalscoring form.
And when asked in a Reddit Q&A which player had blown him away most, it was not the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Mesut Ozil that sprung to mind for Tierney.
“Gabriel Martinelli,” he said. “When I first did a full training session with the team I was put up against him and the intensity of his play was honestly mindblowing and I thought to myself this is the standard I need to be at to play for Arsenal.
“I think his hunger and drive and his talent together at one is more than enough to be a world class player for many years.”
