Aston Villa have signed Emi Martinez on a four-year contract in a deal that will earn Arsenal around £20 million.
The Argentine made it clear after his heroics at the tail-end of last season that he wouldn’t settle for playing back-up to Bernd Leno any longer and opted to seek pastures new when Arsenal failed to give him the assurances he wanted.
While Mikel Arteta will regret having to sell his former teammate, the funds raised should cover a replacement – rumoured to be Brentford’s David Raya – and form a chunk of any down payment on a midfielder.
Martinez made 38 appearances in total for the Gunners since joining the club as a teenager in 2010. The majority of those came last season following an injury to Leno and included impressive performances on the way to FA Cup success at Wembley.
A thoroughly likeable chap with a heartwarming back story, he’ll be missed by the fans who really took to him in recent months. In an Instagram video shared last night, he bid farewell.
We wish Emi all the best at Villa Park and with his quest to become Argentina’s number one.
On the one hand, I’m happy that he’s able to get the No. 1 jersey he so thoroughly deserves. On the other, I don’t like that we’ve made an already tricky side to beat a bit better…
But still, good luck Emi. And thank you!
It’s also a massive vote of confidence for Leno who has probably watched quietly in horror while Emi put in some world class performances.
It also comes with a fair dollop of pressure too though – the next howler that Leno makes will provoke everyone to get 20 20 hindsight about this transfer.
dont worry. he’s been with us for 10 years. he knows what to do when he faces us.
Lol! Once a Gunner…
Leak in some goals. ?
You are thinking about a couple of tricky games against his new side. Me, I am thinking about another injury to Leno and our season in jeorpardy because of a new keeper who can’t handle the pressure or lacks the necessary quality.
£20m is a nice chunk of cash. I trust Arteta to spend it wisely.
I’ve got a feeling Emi is gonna have a great career…
Hopefully we’ve got enough cash for Partey deal
Thanks for the memories Emi! ❤️
Aren’t we signing runner son of runner?
I think a year’s loan for someone experienced (and preferably home grown) would be a good idea. Much cheaper than Raya and we can still go after him next season/January if we’re bothered. Cash flow is all important at the moment – it doesn’t make sense to spend £15m on Raya (especially as he’d be a back-up keeper) when we’ve received about £20m for Emi. What can you do with ~£5m? Unfortunately I didn’t realise the reason Villa were buying Emil was because Tom Heaton is injured, which makes my idea of including a loan for him in the deal… Read more »
*Emi. They’re not signing Smith-Rowe, obviously.
I don’t mind if they even add money to the 20M to get a real good keeper. I don’t want us to finish 10th because there was a long-term injury to Leno or he loses form completely which can also happen.
The Icelandic guys do love some bit of sons in their appellations.
Sad to see him go but it would be incredibly selfish to make him stay after all he has waited 10 yrs for the joursey the man deserves to be number 1
Sad day! Emi fully deserves a No1 jersey, and I can’t blame him for moving, although I’d much rather he didn’t (can’t blame him tho). Great guy with a blatantly obvious love for the club.
All the best at Villa!
Wish him the best!
I have a feeling we made the correct wrong choice…
I’m also completely certain that I’m not sure
I’ve firmly decided to sit on the fence.
Just like a Pawn bravely reaching the end of the chessboard we exchanged him for our new Queen.
He sacrificed himself to fund our midfield.
He is a true Arsenal fan.
I want him to succeed but if he does and potential surpasses Leno, I will be sad for losing him…
the correct wrong choice.
good to see us get $20m instead of being lowballed into some 5mil deal. how about Macey? i heard we have some talented young keepers in our reserves. surely we can give them a chance as no.2 while keeping our fingers firmly and very tightly crossed that Leno doesnt get injured?
Macey is reported as wanting to leave too for first team football, but may not be good enough to be first choice back up goalie at Arsenal.
I think we got £20 million because that’s his market worth. We won’t get that kind of money for several other players we’re trying to offload because they simply aren’t worth it (that’s not what some Gooners think they should be sold for, that’s what someone else is prepared to pay – which is all that matters for footballers or anything else).
Jacob Hein, senior Estonian International depsite only 18 YO.. if Inaki Cana can do his magic to him.. then we’ll fine
i rate him higher than macey actually
Wish Emi all the best in Aston Villa except off course when they play the Arsenal. May those be his off days.
Good luck to him. He will be remembered forever. Class act sat and waited for his shot and took it. I feel there isn’t much difference between the 2. Leno is a better shot stopper, but Martinez is better with the ball at his feet. I personally would’ve looked to sell Leno. Could’ve got more money for him and parted ways with some big wages. Would open up more room for singing more depth to the squad. I feel we are still a bit short there. Great win against Fulham, but I don’t know if we can stand up currently… Read more »
Straight into my Fantasy team….good luck Emi.
I think our GK situation is really unusual. It’s not often a clearly defined number two comes in and performs consistently at a level that probably no one thought was possible. Given he’s tasted the first team, received the plaudits he’s done etc, he rightly wants more of it as he’s displayed he’s at the level required to be an undisputed number 1. I think there’s a hair’s breadth in it and £20m is about right given he still doesn’t have much experience. I mean, if we were selling Emi this time last season what would we have got him?
Arsenal traditionally has always being a good platform for gk to show their potential. I would personally thank maupey, without him neither we knew emi was this good and we would have never got the cash he has generated
Guendouzi will be quick to remind him that he generated more money for us via this sale than he makes in several years
He was rated about £7.2m…might still be on Transfermarkt…the year before last about £2m…we’ve done well this time. I wish him the best for the future.
We beat the Transfermarkt value on a sale?
Who the fuck are we and what happened to Arsenal?
3 million I guess.
we sell ospina for peanut… depsite he was actually decent option (if not frequenly injured himself)
A place in Arsenal hearts forever. Best of luck Emi.
I’ll be real he don’t deserve to be at Arsenal…. he done what he had to do but after how many years he tired of battling for first place goalkeeper.. hope he does well but honestly wished he stayed he would be number one by December… but now let’s sign one midfielder (dm) or creative and move forward
Thank you for your contribution to the Arsenal, Emi Martinez, and best wishes for your future.
It’s amazing how up until lockdown I wouldn’t have been overly fussed about losing Emi. But such was the impact of his performances that this now feels like a big loss. When weighed up though it feels like the sensible thing to do to sell him while his value is higher than ever. I do think, had he stayed on another year, he could have made a move to a much bigger club than Villa if he sustained his form, but then that would have required him getting the game time. In that sense I wouldn’t be surprised if he… Read more »
On the plus side, I can put him in my Fantasy team now knowing he’ll get the game time. He’s going to be busy too!
Over the moon about Auba and then crying over Emi, things are never dull at Arsenal.
A fantastic man who shares values of our beloved club till the very end. Happy to see him go in glory, with such a nice farewell and I hope he will succeed in Premier League with Villa and as a no. 1 of Argentina for years to come
If he helps top keep them up, it will be £20 million well spent.
Hope we’ve included a sell-on clause for when Villa sell him to Chelski for 70m next year
That’s prophetic.
Emi doesn’t seem to be a wanker who would want to move to Chelsea though.
Very easy to say in hindsight, but what if we’d just promoted Martinez to number one originally and never bought Leno, saved that money for other areas (although getting £20 mil does negate that). To bad we didn’t spot his talent until an injury forced our hand. From his wiki (2014): With injuries to backup goalkeeper David Ospina, Martínez played his second Champions League game on 26 November, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 victory over Borussia Dortmund. His “faultless” performance in the match led to him being named in the UEFA Team of the Week. He made his first Premier League start… Read more »
before inaki cana come in with arteta staff, actually our GK option lack of consistent perfomer , even ospina have good run half season after szczesny frozen.. but.. just it.. some howler made him lost perfom Leno at neverkusen actually quite amazing with high confident (there was a time when he actually rate higher than Trap, Ter-stegen, Karius at german roster).. in Arsenal Emery, i still see leno with amazing reflect but lack of trust of backline and confident to take the ball if leno able to recapture his neverkusen perform (when he play every single match for them at… Read more »
Emi had an incredible privilege which few keepers have: to win an FA Cup. And even that as a second choice.
The club have been good to him and he can go out holding his head high.
Six months ago ya’ll didn’t care two bits about this guy, so stop acting like jilted lovers 😉
All the best to him, he has done well for himself, and also for us in transfer fees.
He was maybe world class and maybe a class above Leno even and I hate that we will never get to know that at arsenal, but from a completely objective point of view we probably did the right thing.
Here’s wishing you all the best, Martinez.
Blessings
What’s the point of Macey and Illiev if we’re replacing Emil with the Icelandic lad?
I was thinking the same. Macey is 26 and Iliev 25 I think and neither have ever looked remotely like challenging for the top spot or even back up. If we’re getting the Icelandic guy in these two should be sold / released and make Okonkwo 3rd choice.
i chose hein at the moment (regular international at estonian underage even already debut at senior), Okonkwo was good but 1 years out from football need time to found his feet
I was against this to start with, but it is great business if we get a decent midfielder through the door. Of course, seeing Leno in action again didn’t do any harm either.
take care emi, thanks for everything
came as a boy, left on a high as cult hero last season
take care of him Villa
Emirates Stadium always open to you as one of our own (maybe you can come back after adventure.. either as senior figure and retire with us or our staff)
I think this is the third consecutive time that winning the FA Cup was our goalkeeper’s last competitive match for Arsenal.
All the best to him. We’ve had good recent record with Ospina moving to Napoli and Szcezny (Forgotten how to spell his name) at Juventus both were decent in final year with us and have progressed since. Macey and Iliev of course neither young either. One may move on should we bring in Runnarsson. The Ice man is somewhat smaller than expected but maybe he has good reflexes like Ospina and I believe one of the things mentioned is he is good with his feet. How Iliev fits in is also interesting, certainly we could do with the redundancy and… Read more »
Other rumours apparently we are keeping track of Ibrahim Sangare at (recently relegated) Toulouse, a 6’3 Ivorian bruiser. He is going for 10m and plays at DM. Not sure about him, looks like the sort with telescopic legs and certainly will add a great frame plus at 22yrs a great age to bring in. With Elneny a surprise coming back from loan with better maturity to his play at 29yrs, he relieves the pressure to buy Partey. We certainly cannot afford 2 unicorn signings (Aouar and Partey unlikely) and even one is a huge stretch for us so 10m for… Read more »
Did Arsenal receive 20 million or 16 million from Aston Villa? BBC says 17 million. Other sources say 16 million.
With the rumoured replacements for Martinez, where does this leave Matt Macy? He’s about where Emi was a few years ago. He’s been at Arsenal for a few years so is he still part of the plan?