Gabriel Martinelli’s departure to Al-Hilal has left a hole on the left of Mikel Arteta’s attack, and the name Arsenal have gone back to is one Madridistas know very well. The Endrick Arsenal link, dormant since the early weeks of the summer, is live again in the final days of the window — and once again it runs straight into a Real Madrid answer that has not changed since June.
Why the Endrick Arsenal link is back
According to journalist Graeme Bailey, as relayed by Madrid Universal, Arsenal have renewed their interest in Endrick and have made contact with Real Madrid over his availability. The trigger is straightforward enough: Martinelli has gone to Saudi Arabia, Arteta is a forward light, and the Gunners are working through a shortlist with the clock running down.
Endrick, the report says, is aware that Arsenal represent a genuine possibility, and the idea holds some appeal for him — not because of any unhappiness at the Santiago Bernabeu, but because a move to a Premier League side of that level would offer something he cannot currently guarantee himself in Madrid: a clear route to regular minutes.
That is the entire story in one sentence, and it is worth stating plainly before the noise of deadline week takes over. This is not a player agitating for an exit. It is a 20-year-old forward at the biggest club in the world, currently injured, currently behind a generational No. 9, being reminded that there are places where he would start every week.
This is not a new idea
The most useful context here is that Arsenal have been circling for months. Per the same report, Endrick’s representatives sounded out several Premier League clubs earlier in the window — Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Fulham were all said to have been approached. That is not a shortlist so much as a sweep of the division, and it tells you how seriously the player’s camp explored England before the season began.
Arsenal, in particular, had already raised Endrick with Real Madrid once. Those conversations took place alongside the far more eye-catching approach for Vinicius Junior, who subsequently committed his future to Los Blancos with a new contract, and also took in an enquiry about Arda Guler. Madrid said no on all fronts. Guler has since become one of the most influential players in Jose Mourinho’s early XI, and Vinicius remains the club’s most valuable attacking asset alongside Kylian Mbappe.
So Arsenal have asked about three Real Madrid attackers this summer and been rebuffed three times. The fourth attempt is the same question with a new deadline attached.
Real Madrid’s answer has not changed
Real Madrid’s position, as it has been all summer, is that Endrick stays. Mourinho has been the most consistent voice on that point: the Portuguese blocked an Endrick exit earlier in the window and made clear he did not want the Brazilian sold. Nothing that has happened since has softened that stance.
The wider club message points the same way. Speaking this week, director of institutional relations Emilio Butragueno echoed his manager almost word for word when asked about further business: “New signings? As the mister said, the squad is closed for us.” He did add the obvious caveat — “however, the transfer window is still open” — but the framing was clear, and we covered Butragueno’s full deadline-week update earlier today.
There is also a squad-building logic behind the refusal. Madrid have already brought in six players this summer in Yan Diomande, Denzel Dumfries, Bernardo Silva, Marc Cucurella, Ibrahima Konate and Carlos Espi. The group is crowded. Selling a 20-year-old centre-forward who wears the No. 9 shirt would create a hole rather than fill one, and Madrid would then need to replace him in a market where they have shown no appetite to spend again.
The awkward part: Endrick is not playing
Here is where the story gets genuinely difficult for the player, and where Arsenal’s pitch acquires some force.
Endrick has not featured this season. He picked up a muscular problem a fortnight ago, missed the pre-season friendly against Schalke, and sat out the opening two La Liga fixtures against Espanyol and Real Sociedad. On Friday he again trained away from the group at Valdebebas, working to an individual programme alongside Aurelien Tchouameni, and looks set to miss Sunday’s visit of newly promoted Malaga. Mourinho has described the layoff as precautionary — a small tendinitis issue managed carefully rather than a serious injury — and has refused to put a date on the return, saying the club will not push him back before he is at 100 per cent.
That is sensible medicine and awful timing. Endrick returned from a productive loan spell at Olympique Lyon expecting this to be the season he established himself in Madrid. Instead he has spent the opening fortnight on the outside while the pecking order in front of him hardened.
Mbappe scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad on Mourinho’s first night back at the Bernabeu and is currently unplayable. Vinicius is on the left with a new contract. Guler has forced his way into the centre. And behind them, summer signing Carlos Espi has made an immediate impression, which complicates the picture for a young striker who needs the crumbs of rotation to fall his way.
What actually happens before the deadline
For all the movement in the story, a transfer still looks unlikely, and the reasons are structural rather than sentimental.
First, Madrid do not want to sell, and a club with no financial pressure and a manager publicly protecting the player has no reason to be talked round in the final days of the window. Second, Endrick is injured, which makes a permanent deal at a serious fee a hard sell for any buyer and a loan the only realistic mechanism — and a loan does nothing for Arsenal’s immediate need for a forward who can play in September. Third, Madrid’s own late-window activity is entirely conditional on outgoings, with Roma’s Manu Kone the name being monitored; letting Endrick go would not solve that puzzle, because Mourinho does not want the vacancy in the first place.
The realistic outcome, then, is that Arsenal ask, Madrid say no, and the story is filed away until January — at which point Endrick’s minutes total across the first half of the season will make the conversation either louder or irrelevant.
The Madridista view
There is a version of this where Madrid are being stubborn to the player’s cost. Endrick is 20, he has an enormous ceiling, and a season spent watching Mbappe from the bench helps nobody. Lyon proved he benefits from playing.
But there is a better version, and it is the one the club appears to be following. Mourinho has been explicit that he wants Endrick in his squad rather than out of it, and the minutes should come once he is fit and once the fixture list starts biting — with a Champions League league phase and a full domestic calendar ahead, it will bite hard. Selling a 20-year-old Brazilian No. 9 in the last week of August, while he is injured and cannot show his value, is the kind of decision clubs spend a decade regretting.
Arsenal will keep asking. That is what a club short of a forward in deadline week does. Real Madrid, on the evidence of every answer they have given since June, will keep saying no.
