Emiliano Martínez looks set to join Chelsea in a £7.5m transfer from Aston Villa, as arguably the greatest goalkeeper in Villa’s modern history departs.
It has been no secret Martínez has sought moves away from Villa Park in the last couple of years, so the fact he is leaving comes as a surprise to no one, especially after Villa preempted this development by signing his successor in Zion Suzuki.
However, there is no way around it, Villa have botched this situation by letting Martínez go to Chelsea.
It was clear from early in the window that the fee for Martínez would not be a lucrative one as he enters his age 34 season, despite the Argentine still playing at an elite level.
Villa went back and forth with Juventus earlier this summer as they tried to secure a cut-price deal for the two-time Yashin Trophy winner, with Juve ultimately leaving the negotiating table and signing Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario instead.
The line at the time was that the Italian club were concerned about the broken finger Martínez had been dealing with since injuring it in the warm up before the Europa League final.
Given Martínez has been training with Villa and that Chelsea are now pushing on with a transfer, it does not seem like that was the real cause of the breakdown. More likely the two sides simply could not come to an agreement on price.
Despite reports to the contrary at the time, it sounds like the bids from Juventus never got to the £7.5m Chelsea will pay, which means from a financial standpoint, Villa have done the right deal, particularly as they look to squeeze every drop out of their resources to bring new players in.
There is more to the equation than simply financial matters though.
Getting a million or two less from Juve would surely not have been so devastating that it would have killed a transfer Villa were hoping to make later in the window, and getting Martínez’s situation resolved early may have helped them be more decisive with subsequent moves.
Having Martínez stay in the Premier League with one of the ‘Big 6’ teams they are fighting to get ahead of – or in Chelsea’s case, stay ahead of – despite being at a financial disadvantage, is an unforced error from Villa.
Martínez was happy to go to Juventus, and now Villa have again helped out a team they are likely to be jostling with for the European places, after already selling them Morgan Rogers earlier this summer.
Another factor to consider is that Martínez remaining in the Premier League will make it easy to compare how Suzuki is playing compared to him.
If he had gone to Juve, Martínez would have been out of sight and therefore out of mind for Villa fans. Now there could be unnecessary extra pressure put on Suzuki if he takes time to adapt and Martínez continues to play at a high level for Chelsea.
The moment Villa decided to move on Suzuki while Martínez’s future was still unresolved, they lost leverage as potential buyers knew they had to get Martínez’s salary off the books by the end of the window.
The club deserves credit for being proactive and not playing the ‘will he, won’t he’ game with Martínez any longer, but it may have emboldened Juventus to stick to their price point, and ultimately led to the point they are at now, where he will become a Chelsea player.
Villa have generally done well with the hand they’ve been dealt this summer, recouping significant transfer fees for players departing and replacing them decisively, but this feels like a mistake.
Add us as a preferred source on Google