Tag Archives: emiliano martinez

New Manager, New Goalkeeper, Renewed Hope over The Arsenal

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Yesterday was a gay old day for Arsenal.

We awoke to the Adidas video. If this was not enough to warm the cockles of your heart ahead of the season, you might be best of sitting it out.

It is only this morning as I post the video back up that I realise it was a promotion video for the 3rd kit.

The video had its desired affect, and 98% of the fan base is now buzzing for Saturday. The less said about the 2% the better.

Then at 9pm last night, Arsenal dropped the news that Mikel Arteta had been promoted to manager.

This is a promotion of huge significance, and shows Arteta has the backing of the senior leadership team and board at Arsenal.

From head coach to manager means Arteta will now be involved in all aspects of the first team, not just the coaching. He will be more heavily involved in transfer, in building his own scouting team. Building the team in his mind. Not just coaching another mans vision.

Excellent news for those who do not like a Director of Football running the club.

At around the same time as the Arteta news was breaking, the Independent broke that Emi Martinez was set to join Aston Villa for around £15million.

The fee does feel a little light, but as it stands no other club is coming in for him.

With just 2 years on his contract to go, and Emi refusing to sign a new deal unless he had “guarantees of first team football”, Arsenal had 3 choices:

  1. Give Emi want he wants – Make him Arsenal number 1 after just 9 Premier League games. Casting aside Bernd Leno, one of our most consistent performers of the last 2 years. This would see Arsenal favour a 28-year-old keeper with just 15 top flight games under his over one with 300 games. It would be a huge risk.
  2. Risk Emi running down his contract – Tell Martinez that he will start the season as number one, but that he is not guaranteed that position. It is then a fair fight between Martinez and Leno for that number 1 shirt. This then risks Martinez dropping down to number 2, not signing a new deal and Arsenal selling for £5-6million next summer.
  3. Sell Emi – Even at £15million, Martinez is at the most valuable he has ever been at Arsenal. Last summer he was on the verge of a move back to Spain for about £3-4million. 9 league games on and Arsenal are trebling that. Sell, reinvest in someone cheaper, make Leno number one and have some cash left over.

And ultimately it is number 3 that seems to be happening.

Martinez wants first team football. He is 28-years-old now, in his peak years as a goal keeper. His 10 year career at Arsenal had giving him very little to shout about prior to this season.

A handful of games for The Arsenal and 6 loan deals taking from Oxford to Getafe, Wolverhampton, Rotherham, Sheffield and Reading.

For the first time in his career, he is in charge of his own destiny. He can choose whether to stay in London, compete for number 1 at Arsenal, or move to a club of his choosing and be undisputed number 1.

Life as a 2nd choice goal keeper is hard. You train hard, day in day out, only to sit on the bench for much of your career. Steve Harper famously went 6 seasons at Newcastle playing a total of 7 Premier League games.

In total, Harper was an unused substitute over 300 times!

Martinez wants first team football, and Arsenal should not step in his way.

Arsenal have reportedly enquired about David Raya as a replacement.

Raya is currently Brentford’s number 1, and played every game of the season in 2019/20 winning the Championship’s Golden Glove award.

Like Martinez, he is a foreign born, home-grown player; having been born in Barcelona but joining Blackburn at 17.

If Martinez leaves, Arsenal have no option but to replace him with a home grown player.

We currently have 18 non-home grown players, and with our remaining transfer targets being Ghanaian and French, that number could well become 20. We are only allowed 17.

So before even considering replacing Martinez, we already need to sell at least 3 non-home grown players to make space for 2 incoming. Signing a non-home grown 2nd choice keeper would just feel like a waste of a spot.

Once it is established that Arsenal will need a home grown keeper to replace Martinez, the list becomes a lot smaller. Tom Heaton of Aston Villa or Fraser Forster at Southampton would be two potential options. But both have suffered with injuries recently and would very much be a short term solution.

Joe Hart could have been in there, but he has joined Tottenham.

We are not going to spend big on someone like Nick Pope or Jack Butland, and neither would probably want to leave their current clubs to sit on the bench for Arsenal.

In Raya, Arsenal would be signing a 25-year-old keeper that is home grown, previously worked with Arsenal goal keeping coach Inaki Cana and set-piece specialist Andreas Georgson at Brentford and has played over 280 games in England.

Raya ticks a lot of boxes, and would cost significantly less than what we would receive for Martinez. That in turns raises funds to continue improving elsewhere on the pitch.

For those who might say “he is only 6ft”, Brentford had the best record in defending set pieces last year. You do not do that if you do not have a goal keeper who can not command his box.

A final thought of the day: If you are sitting moaning about Arsenal’s transfer activity this summer, labelling the club unambitious, go through your own Tweets first. Wanting to sell Aubameyang and sign Ryan Fraser is onot exactly showing ambition.

Have a good Friday. The Arsenal return tomorrow.

PS: Just wish Adidas would learn it is “The Arsenal”.

Keenos

Arsenal star should stay and fight for his place

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The aftermath of the FA Cup was an emotional time for Emiliano Martinez. Having waited patiently for ten years to become Arsenal’s starting goalkeeper, Martinez was overcome with emotion as he sat on the Wembley sideline, FA Cup winners’ medal around his neck, video calling his family in Argentina.

Following six different loans over seven years, the Argentine excelled in goal towards the end of last season after being called up to replace the injured Bernd Leno. His assured performances have put him firmly in contention to be the Gunners’ number one for the 2020/21 campaign, even if Martinez has since revealed interest from “ten teams in Europe”.

Rewind to 20 June and that horrific loss away to Brighton. It was an ugly day that went badly wrong for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal. One that could be summed up by the ghastly injury suffered by Bernd Leno as he clashed awkwardly with Neal Maupay. The initial news did not look good, with Leno initially feared to be out for six months with a damaged ACL. The one player Arteta needed to back up a shaky defence was lost for the season.

Step forward, Emiliano Martinez. Many fans had forgotten his name, but he was determined to make sure they remembered it. Having outlasted Wojiech Szczesny, Petr Cech and David Ospina, to name a few, the 27-year-old was focused on making the number one spot his own.

What followed was completely unexpected. Martinez didn’t just do what was required of him as a stand-in replacement, he excelled to such a degree that he was arguably the best goalkeeper in the post-lockdown Premier League. Stunning saves against Southampton, Norwich City and his last-minute heroics to secure a win at home to Liverpool have underlined have cemented his status as Arsenal’s second quality keeping option.

After waiting a decade to prove himself in north London, Martinez has done just that in a matter of months. As a result, it is completely understandable that he may wish to capitalise on the best form of his career with a big-money move elsewhere.

However, if Arteta and his coaching staff are shrewd in their handling of Martinez’s demands for first-team football, there is no reason why he and Leno can’t both be at the club.

Leno should remain the clear starter because, despite his injury, he has been one of the most reliable goalkeepers in the league throughout his first two seasons in England. Having cemented the number one spot, it would be harsh on Leno to take it away from him due to an injury that was out of his control.

Even with Leno as number one, Martinez will get plenty of game time too. As deputy, the Argentine will feature in all of Arsenal’s cup matches over three competitions: the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League. If Martinez wants to play a higher percentage of games that include Premier League fixtures, Arteta could select him for matches of lesser importance against sides in the bottom half of the table. This approach would have the added benefit of protecting Leno from another injury amidst what is going to a packed schedule for 2020/21, whilst of course keeping Martinez satisfied.

Martinez may even be given the starting shirt for the new campaign, with the view of easing Bernd Leno back into action gradually. Although Leno trained at the end of last season, it is not yet clear as to whether he will immediately be match-fit and ready to go.

Any public offers for Martinez from those “ten teams” are yet to be received by Arsenal, so it is entirely feasible that he will stay at the club. If this is the case, then Arteta must approach a delicate situation with innovative methods to ensure that he can keep Leno and Martinez, both worthy of the number one spot, content over the forthcoming campaign.

Zac Campbell

Emiliano Martinez or the goalkeeper who has over 300 top flight games & 93 caps?

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Yesterday I blogged about how David Ospina was set to return to Arsenal following his loan spell at Napoli. A lot of people responded on social media saying that Emiliano Martinez should be Arsenal #2 next season and not Ospina.

This baffles me.

Some have claimed that Martinez has been “immense at Reading”, that he has “great potential” and is better than Ospina.

This baffles me.

Last summer, Carlo Ancelotti took Ospina on loan to Napoli to replace long term injured Alex Meret as #1. He felt Ospina was good enough to play week in, week out, for the 2nd best team in Italy. What he did not do is take Martinez on loan – who was also available.

So Carlo Ancelotti literally believed Ospina was a better goal keeper than Martinez.

If I said that this summer, Arsenal were interested in signing an international #1 with nearly 100 caps for his country. A 30-year-old goal keeper with nearly 400 appearances and has played in the Premier League, Ligue 1 and Italy – with over 330 top flight starts.

A goal keeper that started 16 times in Serie A last season for the team that finished 2nd, making 6 starts in the Champions League. And he was a free transfer.

If this was given as a profile for Petr Cech’s replacement the response would be “sounds ideal”. Yet for some reason people are turning their nose up at Ospina and are favouring Martinez.

There is a reason why last season Ospina was playing week in, week our for Napoli in Seria A and the Champions League’ and Martinez was at Reading who finished 20th in the Championship.

Martinez is 26-years-old. He has been at Arsenal for 8 years. He has played just 14 games.

In that time he has been on loan to Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Getafe and Reading.

In the time Martinez has been at Arsenal Wojciech Szczęsny, Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone, David Ospina, Petr Cech and Bernd Leno were all picked ahead of him at some point or another.

Up to this point he has not exactly had a stellar career. He is now 26-years-old so talk of him having “potential” are way off the mark.

When you compare the careers of Ospina and Martinez up to this point, it is clear and obvious that one is a top class goal keeper, the other is not.

It baffles me that people are putting Martinez ahead of Ospina.

If one was to create a list of potential #2 keepers, you would want them to be an experienced international. Two names that spring to mind are Guillermo Ochoa and Keylor Navas. Ospina is in their class.

So why sell Ospina for £5million to then buy on of those for £10-15million. Might as well stick with Ospina.

When it comes down to Ospina v Martinez, there is one who is an experienced campaigner with nearly 100 caps, and another who is 26-years-old and has not even played 100 games.

Keenos