Martinez’s new journey!
So our worst fears are today confirmed, Emiliano Martinez is no longer an Arsenal player, he has finally left and joined relegation battlers from last season, Aston Villa!
As Arsenal fans we are again on a roller coaster of emotions. From the high of Aubameyang’s announcement, we come crashing back down to earth with a big bang after another loss of one of our star players!
Emiliano Martinez was one of many standout stars of our FA Cup and Community Shield finals but he has finally decided to part ways with our and his beloved Arsenal after 11 years, and what a kick in the teeth it now is! See his emotional farewell message below:
“I feel weird, it’s been over a decade at the club. Everyone knows how much I love Arsenal, and how hard I worked to have the chance that I had in the past few months. I am in love with this club, I am so grateful to the Arsenal family for giving me the opportunity to be here over a decade and I wish Arsenal the best of luck, I hope they get back into the Champions League and win many more trophies because the Arsenal fanbase deserves that, the club as well. I just want to say to the fans that they should trust the process, they are doing a really good work with Mikel and his staff and I wish them all the best.”
Despite becoming number one in my eyes since he took over from the injured Bernd Leno, I fail to understand how Arteta has now deemed him surplus to requirements, and does not seem to count him as his new number one.
I have written previously about how keeping both of our keepers and having them fighting for that one position would bring the best talent out of both of them. However, I fail to see how Leno will be number one and will be the best option for us. I hope he proves me wrong though because he does have potential to be world class but he is prone to mistakes, of course he is, his human at the end of the day.
With no real talented or experienced back up, (no offence to Matt Macey) but if Leno did get injured we will really be in deep trouble. As rumours circulate that we are on the hunt for a new keeper, this should not have even been the position we were left in.
What I do not understand is why hype up the importance of Aubameyang who is one key player (who I absolutely love) and then willingly or so easily let another key player like Martinez go. I understand that Emi wants game time to become Argentinian number one and I do not blame him, but I feel he should have been encouraged to stay at Arsenal, as we can see how much he does love the club!
After everything Mikel has done at Arsenal since his arrival, letting Martinez go has been one of his biggest mistakes. Gooners?
Shenel
l wish him the best of luck at villa park
The mistake is letting him go to a resurgent AV. He should have been sold to a non PL team but I’m not sure Mikel Arteta could have done much to influence the tide given the money on offer and priorities elsewhere.
All the best to Emi
Absolutely not. Here is a player that we was trying to offload a year ago for 1.5m yet to no avail.
He has played just 102 first matches in 10 seasons. Compare that to Matt Macey’s 57 in 6 seasons and you will see that there is not too much difference between the two anyway.
Personally I don’t think I would bother signing another keeper. We already have 6 highly rated back up keepers in Macey(26) Iliev(25) Hillson(19) Hein(18) Okonkwo(19) and Tom Smith(18) two of which are already full internationals whereas Martinez has not yet made that step.
If anything Arteta’s biggest mistakes has been ostracizing the likes of ozil, guendozi, torreira and sokratis. They should all be involved in training if fit and should all be under consideration for at least carabao cup duty if unsold before then.
If however he was now to sell Macey and iliev and replace them with Raya and Runar, I would fully support that.
Emi Martinez leaving Arsenal was not a mistake by Mikel Arteta. Emi Martinez had waited his time, taken all loan deals offered to him and when the opportunity came, took it with both hands and performed beyond expectations. He wanted to be club #1 goal keeper, which meant displacing Berndt Leno, who had been arguably Arsenal’s best player for most of the season. Arsenal offered Martinez a new contract upgrading his £20k per week wage; however Aston Villa offered #1 position and £65k per week. Goodbye Emi, thank you for your loyalty and professionalism and good luck in the future, except against the Arsenal.
I don’t agree with the ostracized part. Ozil and the likes are training but are not giving MA what he wants. From the videos of the training ground, we’ve been seeing those aforementioned players training.
Martinez did really well recently and is too good to settle for being No.2 at this stage of his career. Shame to lose him but makes sense from his point-of-view. I wish him the best of luck.
By the way Matt Macey has told the Telegraph he wants to pursue his career elsewhere to be a club #1 goal keeper.
As well as the keepers mentioned by atid, Runar Runarsson #2 at Dijon has joined for ~£1.5 million.
Your suggestion that Arteta has erred in selling Martinez for 20m at a time of economic chaos Worldwide is not a view I share..Faced with having two excellent keepers it was fairly evident that one would be moved on during this transfer window , and after his eye opening performances since the injury to Leno the fact that Clubs were interested in Martinez was predictable.In any event he was keen to move to a Club where he would be regarded as the number one which is the case at Villa.Basically I feel Arteta had little option but to accede to the wishes of Martinez who I rate highly and I wish him every success with Villa.
Of course it wasn’t a mistake by Arteta to sell Martinez. He didn’t have any option after Martinez said he wasn’t prepared to fight to be No. 1 ( which incidentally he will have to when Heaton is fit ). How many people on here would have chosen Martinez over Leno 12 months ago. Martinez played well when he came in for Leno but out of the two I’d have to choose Leno as our number 1.
What other options do we have?
He was asking to be our number 1 and Leno is there !
I wish him the best luck and to allow us to score some goals when we meet again =)
Im sure Arteta and Club have done their part to convince Martinez to stay. Its look like Martinez choice. Why would you leave Arsenal for Aston Villa? To win trophy? No. For Money? No. Playing Time? Yes. He wants to be first choice keeper. Now thats a true footballer. Not like lazy Ozil, no shame together wt his lousy supporters.