We’ve broken the transfer seal for the summer with the early capture of Brazilian starlet Marquinhos.

But there won’t be many of us who know much about the kid.

So, what can we expect from the teenager from Sao Paolo?

Marquinhos hasn’t made a huge impact on first team affairs in Brazil. 42 appearances and seven goal contributions hardly sets the world on fire. But rest assured that Edu has done his scouting right on this one.

Marquinhos is much more than his stats imply. If we hark back to when we grabbed Gabriel Martinelli, if we looked at his stats back then, we wouldn’t have been too enamoured. But it was his raw attributes that meant Martinelli was destined to make an impact with Arsenal.

And the same applies to Marquinhos. The attacker has been mostly used as a wideman on the right, but has been used on the left and as a secondary striker. And it is his pace and ability to wriggle into space that means he can be a star in our red and white – as well as his close control that Brazilian players have in abundance.

Marquinhos sounds like a player for the future, but Arteta will be running the rule over the left-footed player at our summer training camp, according to Edu;

“We’re delighted to have completed the transfer with Sao Paulo, as Marquinhos was a player we had been watching for a while,” said technical director Edu. “At 19, he is still very young, so he is a player for the future. We look forward to Marquinhos now joining us for pre-season, making his new home, and continuing to grow and develop with us.”

The same thing was said for Martinelli when he joined, but he soon jumped from the unknown to let everyone know of his arrival. Marquinhos has this summer to let Arteta know he is ready. At the very least, a Carabao Cup debut beckons for us Gooners to look forward to.

The other pertinent fact is that Bukayo Saka will need a break. Recent displays for England have shown our star boy to be flagging a little – and it is to be expected with the sheer number of games our Player of the Year has put into his legs the past season. If we are to keep Saka fresh, then Marquinhos can certainly have a part to play.

Watch this space for Marquinhos – who could give everyone a glimpse of his talent in our warm-up games this summer.

Welcome to the club kid!

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