Fabrizio Romano believes Aston Villa and World Cup star Emiliano Martinez won’t be leaving next month.
Martinez was widely regarded as the hero of Argentina’s World Cup final victory after making a stunning save in the last minute of extra time, before then going on to be the hero in the penalty shoot-out once again.
Villa and new manager Unai Emery, who knows the keeper from their time together with Arsenal, will have been delighted for Martinez, although his World Cup heroics appear to have caught the attention of Bayern Munich who saw their number one Manuel Neuer pick up a serious injury post-World Cup.
However, Romano has claimed on the House of Champions YouTube channel that he can’t see Martinez departing mid-season.
(9:05) “I don’t see him moving in January honestly because the goalkeeper’s market, in particular, it is very different, look at goalkeepers like Livakovic, he’s been fantastic for Croatia but there are no negotiations ongoing because the goalkeeper market is different.
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“You need a kind of domino effect to see all these players move in that position and now all the top clubs have a goalkeeper part from Bayern and they need a goalkeeper because Manuel Neuer is injured but they are going for Alex Nubel at the moment [he] is there priority option, they have Sommer also on there list so they are considering some names.”
TIF Thoughts on Martinez’s future…
Martinez has been a great signing for Villa since his arrival in the summer of 2020 racking up 265 saves in the Premier League and has been a consistent between the sticks whenever fit and Emery will be hoping his shot-stopper returns to club action sooner rather than later.
There have also been suggestions that Martinez could hand yet another blow to Hugo Lloris after snatching the World Cup away from him, by replacing the veteran shot-stopper at Tottenham Hotspur.
Villa will be looking to improve the defenders and options Martinez has in front of him, instead of losing someone who will likely be very highly regarded within football after this latest World Cup.