One of Arsenal’s former top recruiters, Francis Cagigao, has shed light on why he brought Emi Martinez to the club.
The Argentinian goalkeeper was signed by the Gunners as a youngster and spent a decade at the Emirates before making a move to Aston Villa for a substantial fee.
In hindsight, Martinez’s departure has been considered a mistake, given his subsequent success at Villa and achievements with the Argentine national team, winning the World Cup and Copa America.
The decision to choose Bernd Leno over Martinez, who is now at Fulham, has led to speculation that Martinez might have stayed with Arsenal if given the chance.
Cagigao was speaking about his initial move to Arsenal and told El Pais:
“He was an unorthodox goalkeeper. Big, with big mitts, quick for his size and brave. I immediately thought he was perfect for the Premiership and for us.
“I called the Argentinian scout to start following him at Independiente, and on my return I told Gerry Peyton, the goalkeeping coach, Arsène and Steve Rowley, the head of scouting, that we had a diamond in the rough. We arranged a trial period. Gerry really liked him and we decided to pay $500,000 plus a million if he played 20 games. Richard Law, our director of operations at the time, closed the deal.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Martinez was superb in the few games he played for us, but we cannot have more than one goalkeeper and understand the club’s decision to allow him to leave the Emirates.
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The big one that got away
Im sorry Martin, I and many others DON’T “understand” at all. A decision that was stupid at the time, still is proving stupid and we have paid dearly for the stupid decision. Please you are not speaking for me and i don’t understand why you understand.
I agree with the administrator’s opinion. Martinez would have stayed IF granted #1 status. He had 56 appearances over many years of loan deals with other clubs and made a total of 15 appearances with Arsenal. The club had to be fully aware of how he had performed over this long period. He decided to force our hand and the club decided not to give him the guarantee he sought based on his most recent excellent form. Hindsight is 20/20.
Totally agree
I was absolutely in the Martinez camp at the time and he has been extremely successful since
What is telling in your post is the time he spent on the sidelines, unable to break through and that must have played a part in Arteta’s thinking about the future.