Martinez Has Every Right to Talk About Arsenal.
Arsenal fans have recently begun to get irritated with Emiliano Martinez constant mentioning of his time at Arsenal in his interviews. They don’t want to be reminded of it anymore. We know he’s gone. That’s it. Thank you and bye bye. But why is he so often mentioning Arsenal every single time he has an interview?
“I don’t think you prepare for not playing, I always thought I had the talent but at some stage in my career when I was 22, 23 and I wasn’t playing, I went on my first loan to Spain, I played only six games,” he recalled to Football Daily.
“Then I knew I would have to go back to Arsenal and they wouldn’t give me a chance, so I would have to go on loan, so those years were really difficult, at some point I stopped loving football.
“That was something I was worried about, I told my wife, ‘I know I’m not playing but I’ve stopped watching football games,’ so it wasn’t an easy place to be. Then I went on loan again to Reading in the Championship, a league which I didn’t want to be in,
“I put myself in a position: I have a newborn baby, this is going to be my last loan. I got that in my head, I started with a psychologist that helped me through my bad moment, it helped me to get past my frustrations.
“Because I always believed I had the talent, I always believed in myself, that I could be one of the best.”
Maybe we need to reconsider a few things. Arsenal are the biggest story of his life. He was part of the famous Reading game and played a part in an unexpected FA Cup win. He suddenly became one of the best goalkeepers in the league overnight here. He was born and bred here. Why wouldn’t he talk about us?
He was the exemplary 3rd/2nd choice keeper. He went out on so many loans, patiently waiting for his time. And when his chance came, he grabbed it with both arms.
He was a fan and a servant. Arsenal was his dream. And who among us won’t talk about it for years to come if we happened to play for Arsenal Football Club?
He has earned the right to talk as well as the right to be bitter about his time at the club if he feels he hasn’t been appreciated enough. After all, he’s only human and one of us.
Agboola Israel