Manchester United-bound Lisandro Martinez picked up the phone and called Mikel Arteta to let him know that he won’t be joining Arsenal this summer, claims Ben Jacobs.

The Argentine has been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League for a while now. Arsenal seemed the frontrunners for his signature at one point, but Manchester United have reportedly won the race to sign him now.

Erik Ten Hag’s presence at Old Trafford combined with the fact that the Red Devils were willing to pay a lot more for Martinez sealed the deal for him, but the versatile defender made it a point to show some respect to Arteta and Arsenal before agreeing to join Manchester United.

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Lisandro Martinez personally called Arsenal boss Arteta before accepting Man United move

Speaking on The Football Terrace YouTube channel, Jacobs said: “From Arsenal’s point of view, they were very sold on the player. He also spoke to Arteta in a great amount of detail.

“What tells you the race was open for a very, very long time is the fact that Martinez picked up the phone and personally told Arteta that he wouldn’t be joining around about 48 hours or so ago.

“So, there is clearly a lot of respect on the Arsenal side as well. This was by no means a one-club, one-manager race. Arsenal were firmly in it.”

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Edu has found an alternative who’s so much better

Missing out on a player like Martinez was viewed by many as a big blow for Arsenal. However, the Gunners already had an alternate option – Oleksandr Zinchenko – and he’s now on the verge of joining us.

Fabrizio Romano revealed today that Arsenal and Manchester City have reached an agreement for the transfer of the Ukraine international for a fee of £30 million. The discussion on personal terms is ongoing, but we don’t expect that to be a problem at all.

Martinez’s biggest selling point was the fact that he can play at left-back, centre-half and as a number six. Zinchenko cannot play in central defence, but he’s more than good enough to play as a full-back and anywhere across the midfield.

The Ukrainian knows the Premier League really well and has also worked with Arteta before. In our opinion, we’ve got the better player in Zinchenko, and we hope the deal will be made official in the coming days.

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