AerialThreat

Does your Dendocker interest suggest he may well leave after all, despite the public briefings?

The comments here about player valuations are spot on. It's not really about the player's ability at all in the end.

The fee is just the sweet spot between the buying club's desire to get the player vs the selling clubs desire to keep.

Hence why teams can never shift unwanted players for decent fees, as most of the league, especially my team, are finding out right now.

For a player like Jack, it's a different story and I reckon Villa can hold out for at least another £20m here.

If Villa are willing to sell, is there any chance that you boys could get any of their players as part of the deal? (Would you want any of them?)

We owe him some back pay - new contract was promised at the end of last season but negotiations have been um... 'delayed' ...

We said we'd make up the difference so he'll get it. There's no bad blood at all.

Just to revisit the question around Martinez's distribution, Sam Dean of the Telegraph has published this article today:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/09/14/revealed-arsenal-keep-scoring-goal/

The relevant extract is as follows:

Quote

The role of the goalkeepers

The goalkeepers have played a crucial role in all four of the goals Arsenal have scored in this way. That comes from Arteta’s coaching, but also the work of new goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana Pavon, who joined from Brentford in December. He is described as “intense” and he has pushed for Arsenal’s goalkeepers to be more aggressive in their positioning.

Emiliano Martinez thrived in this system following an injury to Bernd Leno in June. The Argentine, who has now agreed to join Aston Villa, showed the courage and the technical ability to execute those high-stakes passes within his own penalty box.

“You can see when the ball goes back to Emi in the FA Cup semi-final, he knew the central midfielder would be there and the centre-back would be in the right position,” said Matt Macey, Arsenal's third choice goalkeepr. “It takes a lot of trust in the players around you.

“As a goalkeeper I know where the centre-mid and the left-back are supposed to stand, because the manager presents it in a way that we have to learn it. It is almost as if you were a coach and had to explain it to someone else. That is a new way of coaching that I had never seen before. When they first came in it blew everyone away, in the way we could all understand the system.”

7 minutes ago, Brumerican said:

You're really going to spend £30 million for a back up goalie ?

No - I don’t think we anticipated that they’d play hardball - reckon we thought we could get him for sub £10m.

Thats’s why this Icelandic guy is now being linked as well.

The term “good shot stopper” is generally reserved for the bang average keeper who can’t do anything else except the basics 

18 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

My only doubt is from that 5-5 against Liverpool. Wasn’t he shocking in that game?

Not his finest hour. But after Emery was sacked, Arteta brought in Inaki Cana, formerly Brentford’s GK coach, and neither Martinez nor Leno have looked back. Cana has had a big impact on Emi’s improvement.
 

Incidentally, we are looking at David Raya from Brentford as Martinez’s replacement on Cana’s recommendation. We also have an Icelandic keeper on the radar, who also worked with Cana before.

9 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Please tell me this guy can catch crosses.

You’ll laugh mate. But I can genuinely say he caught every single cross he went for in those 10-12 games he played for us after the restart. It became a bit weird to me that he was so consistent on them.

3 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

From what i hear there was strong debate on the Arsenal forum around whether Leno or Martinez should have been ur no1?

100% correct. A lot of fans think we’ve sold the wrong guy, but there is an emotional attachment to Emi that drives a lot of that because he’s been with us since he was a kid.

I think Leno is probably the better keeper - mainly due to having proved it over a longer period of time - but it’s close.

As others have said on here - the challenge for Emi is to now prove, as a first choice, that he can maintain his performance levels.

Hi folks

Just dropped by to tell you just how good a keeper you’re getting in Emi Martinez.(Can confirm the deal is 100% done!)

We’re gutted to be losing him but we need to sell to raise funds for signings - we can’t afford to have two £20m+ rated keepers.

One thing worth mentioning - he’s the best keeper I’ve ever seen in terms of claiming crosses. It’s like he’s got superglue on his gloves!

Wishing you all the best for the season ahead!

Gareth aka @AerialThreat (Twitter).