Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez reportedly has ‘no interest’ in a pair of potential exit avenues following his failed summer transfer to Manchester United.
Martinez’s future was one of the most volatile at Villa in the summer. They ended up having to sell academy graduate Jacob Ramsey to drum up funds and stay in line with financial regulations.
There was speculation that Martinez would be sold, though, especially given how upset he looked at the end of last season at Villa Park.
It was reported throughout the summer that a move to play at Old Trafford for United was top of his radar, and it was reported the Argentina goalkeeper agreed personal terms with United. However, they opted to sign Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp on deadline day.
With the windows in Turkey and Saudi Arabia still open, a move could yet come to fruition, but Football Insider‘s Pete O’Rourke states Martinez will now dig his heels.
“It’s a huge boost for Villa that Martinez is still at the club,” O’Rourke said.
“It seems he’s got no interest in a move to Turkey or Saudi Arabia despite the interest while their transfer windows are still open. So it does look like he will be staying at Villa Park until January at least.
“It’s a big year for Martinez and he wants to be playing regularly in the lead up to the World Cup. He wants to be competing at the highest level and playing regularly as well.
“It’s a win-win for Villa, they will keep hold of Martinez who has shown over time what a top goalkeeper he can be for them.”
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Why United turned down Martinez for Lammens
It has been revealed that there were three main reasons United chose Lammens over Martinez. Firstly, the Belgian is younger, and the other two reasons were financial – Martinez wanted £200,000 per week and Villa wanted £40million for him.
But United have been told Lammens might not be the world-beater they think he is.
On his signing, Gary Lineker said: “Manchester United have brought in a goalkeeper, Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp who apparently made more saves than any other goalkeeper last season. That doesn’t always mean what it sounds like it means, they might have just been a bad team at Royal Antwerp.”
Alan Shearer followed up, stating: “Young for the situation that he has to go into. If he’s going to go straight in there, that’s going to be a big ask for him. What happened to the Emi Martinez deal? I don’t know, because he didn’t play the other night, did he?
“Obviously, he didn’t get the move that he wanted. So that’s going to be a big ask for a young goalkeeper to go in there and start and perform.”
Aston Villa round-up: Rogers’ huge valuation
Villa successfully managed to deter rival clubs from making offers for Morgan Rogers in the summer.
In January, it could again be hard for his signing to be made, as it’s believed by TEAMtalk sources that he could genuinely be a £100million player by that time.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah has told Villa they are “lucky to have” Harvey Elliott after his late summer move.
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