Marca had an interesting article earlier on how Aston Villa currently feel about the situation surrounding Emiliano Martínez. The goalkeeper appeared to be emotionally waving goodbye to the club’s supporters after their 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Friday evening.
That saw transfer rumours go through the roof, and Marca explained they contacted a source at Aston Villa who made it clear there’s not even been any approaches for the Argentina World Cup winner. No offers, no attempts, nothing in the pipeline.
It was made clear that if something is going on then Aston Villa aren’t involved in it, and that the player has a contract until 2029 and won’t be available on the cheap. A sale was not ruled out, though.
Reading between the lines, Aston Villa appeared to be annoyed that the story had got ahead of them.
Even since that report there’s been multiple claims of interest. The latest comes from Spanish newspaper AS who state Atlético Madrid have now moved into the picture for Martínez.
Argentine journalist Gaston Edul was first with the claims, and AS say they’ve been able to back it up themselves. The gist is that if Jan Oblak leaves, then Martínez would be of serious interest to Diego Simeone, who has wanted to sign him previously.
Indeed, it’s said Simeone contacted the goalkeeper after the World Cup, wanting to get a deal done, but Los Rojiblancos never made a bid.
If the goodbye message on Friday was a ploy to drive up interest and the awareness of a possible transfer, then it’s working out pretty well.