Former England keeper David James thinks Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta made the wrong decision to sell Emiliano Martinez.
The Argentine goalkeeper left Arsenal on a permanent deal in 2020, joining Aston Villa. He only made over 15 appearances for the first time during his time with the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta made the decision to choose Bernd Leno as number one, which eventually led to Martinez’s departure.
The Argentine narrated what happened at Arsenal under Unai Emery that made him decide to leave:
“So Arsene Wenger, the legend, was standing in front of you, you’re going to be my number one [but] he was signing me, contract and money wise, like a number two and I was number three.
“[He said] ‘Emi look, I give you this because I’m thinking you’re going to be my number one’. When he left, I was 23, 24 and then I went on loan to Getafe where I didn’t play and then Unai Emery came in and was like sorry mate but you played for Rotherham, Sheffield Wednesday, you know, teams that he didn’t even know.”
David James says Arsenal made a mistake with Emiliano Martinez
The former England keeper says Martínez should have stood a chance at being Arsenal’s number one, when the competition at the club was Leno and Ramsdale.
‘It’s interesting when you look at Premier League goalkeepers over a number of years now, there’s not many characters,’ James said on the Seaman Says podcast. ‘Prior to that there were more characters for whatever reason.
‘He [Emiliano Martinez] has character, everything about him is character, he’s a big-game player. He wants to be in the biggest games.
‘When you look at the Raya and Ramsdale situation at Arsenal and obviously Martinez was allowed to go because of Bernd Leno, who’s a decent goalkeeper.
‘But I think Martinez would have been the perfect goalkeeper for Arsenal right now. I think he’s a monster.
‘Weirdly there’s not a lot of goalkeepers in the Premier League these days who are capable of getting to the top corner.’
Emiliano Martinez has gone on to become one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He was the catalyst behind Argentina’s Copa America triumph in 2021, and his penalty heroics won them the World Cup in 2022.
On the other hand, Arsenal have spent over £70million on keepers trying to find a quality number one in goal. Aaron Ramsdale is the latest goalkeeper to leave the Gunners after failing to nail down a spot in the first team over David Raya.
