Mikel Arteta has revealed that it was Emiliano Martinez who asked to leave Arsenal this summer.
The Argentinean had been at the club for 10 years, but it was in his tenth year that he finally had a run in the first team.
When Bernd Leno got injured in June, it afforded him the chance to play for the club and he took his chance well.
He was so good that it began to look like he was the better goalkeeper. He asked the club to make him number one, but Arteta stuck to Leno and sold Martinez to Aston Villa.
Arsenal came under fire for selling the in-form player, but Arteta has now revealed that the goalie wanted to leave if he wasn’t going to be guaranteed to be the club’s number one.
He also said that Arsenal considered the economics of the deal and they decided to do what is right.
He told the club’s official website: “He had a career of 10 years here. It wasn’t just the last six or eight months. You have to look at everything he did through his time at the club. Obviously, it wasn’t in my plans to sell him, but we gave him the chance because he deserved it. He performed really really well but we have to balance the books.
“We have to make the right choices in the market and obviously, I couldn’t guarantee him to be the number one. He’s a very ambitious person, he has been working really hard and he can see now that the opportunity is there. He’s got the opportunity to play with Argentina and when a player asks you to do that I think you have to be open enough and tell him what you think about him. If he makes the decision to leave, you should try to support him because he deserves it for the way he has served the club over the years.”
There was a few of us on here that knew this to be true, we kept saying it and saying it but people still blamed MA and the club.
I HOPE YOU ALL READ THIS AND REALISE IT WAS OUT OF HIS HANDS, LITERALLY!
Val
Agree with what you have written
As much as I thought Emi blossomed and i so wanted him to stay, it was his choice to go to be guaranteed the number one spot
It was a shame he chose to go and not fight for the spot in which he craved but it was his decision and no sort of blaming MA for his stance would have changed anything.
When former players like Adams says we shouldnt have sold, multiple people on this site saying the same just proves they know nothing and are blinded by fiction and take its as truth and then live by it, its a shame really.
👍
Exactly what some of us knew, he wanted to be number one and he couldn’t be guaranteed it. After 10 years of being held back, he obviously felt he was being held back again. He wasn’t sold to fund Partey, he was sold because he couldn’t accept being number two, so asked to be allowed to move on. He now is number one and he hopefully for him will get his dream of being Argentina goalkeeper. I think he should have been our number one but he isnt and lets hope its win win for all.
I thought this was common knowledge among Arsenal supporters
Not anything we didn’t know really is it?
Martinez made it very clear himself what he wanted and Arteta just refused to do it.
End of!!!!
I applaud Arteta for his “no guarantee” and player expectations to start. He has to do what is best for the team, and competition between players ensures the cream rises to the top.
Martinez chose not to stay and fight for the spot; that’s on him and I wish him well elsewhere (except against Arsenal). Top players will show their qualities and class in competition; it keeps them sharp and forces others to improve or move on.
Arteta’s stance on this is one part of our success &improvement so far. Martinelli will challenge others when he’s fit, Willock seems to be progressing, and other players as well.
Long may it continue so we can become a better club.
So MA has “revealed” that Martinez asked to leave -when he was not given a guarantee of being first choice! Well, well, well, who knew that! Apart from the WHOLE Gooner fanbase, that is!
When the word” REVEAL” is deliberately misused in this misleading piece, the intention is to tell us all what we have ALL already known ever since he left.
ADMIN COMMENT — Jeez Jon have you been promoted to chief of the Grammar police department. Your nitpicking is getting tedious my Lord!