Sky Sport is reporting that Arsenal has accepted a £16m bid from Aston Villa for Emiliano Martinez.
The Argentinean goalkeeper has been at the Emirates for a long time, but his time in the first team has been brief.
He was made the club’s second-choice goalkeeper last season and got his break when Bernd Leno suffered an injury during the Premier League restart in June.
The German was out for the rest of the season and Martinez was in fine form, causing a division among Arsenal fans, with some believing that he is a better goalie than Leno.
The Argentinean helped the Gunners win the FA Cup and FA Community Shield and informed Mikel Arteta that he will have to leave if he is not retained as the club’s number one.
The Spaniard had wanted to keep both goalkeepers, but Martinez made it impossible for both of them to be kept happy because he insisted that he must be number one.
Aston Villa has shown interest in signing him and the Englishmen have now tabled an acceptable bid.
The report adds that the deal could rise to £20m when the add-ons are included.
Arsenal will now start working on a replacement for him, Brentford’s David Raya has been identified.
Don’t need a player that isn’t up for the fight. Good luck to him was a good squad player won us an fa cup and community shield but that’s all he will win in his career sadly for him. Don’t think he will make that Argentina squad playing for villa
This is reality
no quality player will want to be bench….
he needs to play regularly to improve……
Only in Fifa you can keep 3 world class GK for 10 seasons
John, exactly right. Martinez has been “up for the fight” (in Jdawg’s words) the whole time he has been at Arsenal. He has taken loan spells away to develop his goal keeping and raise his profile. Now he has taken the opportunity provided by Leno’s injury to show what he has to offer. At 28 Martinez wants to be number one for club and country; unfortunately to do this he has to leave Arsenal. Good luck to him and for Arsenal he has raised his valuation.
As the saying goes “cheap at half the price”.
👍 Declan, now just offer Matt Macey a revised contract to save going into the market for a back up goal keeper.
Good deal for both clubs. Unless Leno gets hurt, Martinez’s value will never be higher in an Arsenal shirt. He deserves a chance at number one. Hope Arsenal included a sell on clause though.
Trudeau, we can all hope, but it’s not something Arsenal seems to be concerned about, unfortunately to the Club’s detriment.
Well, his wife has just started following Villa on Insta… so I guess we’ll hear news tomorrow.. then we’ll be straight on the blower, but to France or Spain?! 😜
Sue, wait until we hear from his kids to be sure. 🤔
🤣🤣 incoming….
that is half price. Raya is rumoured to cost more. he is not on a big contract so with 3 yrs left on contract should keep him until the economy recovers.
what a joke
AFCam, until we know the fullstory, how can it be a joke?
Raya is, I believe, four years younger, willing to be No.2 and wants to be at The Arsenal.
Martinez has been with us for ten years, so why has he been content to be a reserve all that time?
We can’t judge what chelsea payed for a keeper (or any other team come to that) when he has proved to be incapable of getting in their first team.
If the reported fee is £18 million and that is what we need to get Partey, wouldn’t you say it is a very good piece of business for the club? I would anyway.
By the way, I would have kept Martinez instead of Leno but I trust Arteta knows what he is doing.
Martinez and Leno are on a par with their close-range and in-general shot stopping abilities. Emi maybe a tad better at close-range. Leno a bit better at longer-range distribution. Emi a bit more accurate with short-range distribution out of the back– and more comfortable with the ball at his feet.
Where I felt Emi shone brighter?
He had the stickiest gloves I’ve ever seen. When he touched a ball it stayed in his gloves. At least on 3 occasions he had balls that might have deflected off others’ mitts and rolled into goal– that he stopped as if magnetic. That’s an unteachable skill. A knack you have or you don’t.
Best wishes to Emi.
Except twice each season. 😉
Exactly,
I would keep Martinez too
hes tall and he knows the club, the style, the team
Communication and Coordination settled unless the back 4 is change
Raya looks a good keeper, but why not look at the young French player Alban Lafont, still only twenty one, a very good keeper, currently playing for Nantes in France, I think on loan from Fiorentina, would be cheaper than Raya, £10 million or less on current market prices.
Why not look inhouse at Matt Macey now 26 and an imposing 2,01m (6’7″) tall as the number 2 goalkeeper? He also is talking of leaving due to being overlooked.
There are other young goal keeping prospects in the Academy such as Dean Illiev and Andy Woodman.
Really liked Martinez but he can’t bench Leno, he probably knew it too,he has the chance to push Leno out of the starting team but instead he declined the challenge, he has never been closer to the first eleven than this season. He demanded the starting position, wanting and demanding are different, he should have fought Leno for it to show he wants it, he’s not at Manuel neuer level to make demands. That’s part of what caused Arsenal’s slide,players not ready to fight for their spot, always getting it for just showing up. Good luck Martinez
Baba, how can you say he wasn’t prepared to fight for the #1 spot, when he currently had possession of it?
Surely it was up to Leno to win it back.
There are very few player s, who are prepared to sit on the bench, when a football career is relatively short and markedly better wages are on offer.
Please guys, Martinez has chosen his destination, so he is no more Arsenal player, let’s move forward and think on the success of these current team, with him we won fa cup and community shield and also without him we will win the cups that’s why we are bigger club…. So he has decided in pursuing money( Aston villa wages is more than Arsenal wages) over trophies, we don’t need to argue about this again, I wish him best of luck in his forthcoming careerer….. Bye bye Martinez even though I like you as Arsenal keeper but I can’t love you more than my club, we will meet again in these season and Arsenal will show you that you are average keeper but enjoying yourself in a big club like Arsenal by thrashing you 3-0 and showing you we are the better club and we are Arsenallllllll!!!!!!!
All this speculation over whether or not we have done the right thing is now academic. Let us all move on then, for goodness sake!
MARTINEZ IS EFFECTIVELY ELSEWHERE NOW SO LETS CONCENTRATE ON THINGS THAT MATTER NOW and forego endless inquests on academic matters!
but we excel at that (the inquests)