Emi Martinez: Arsenal's worst transfer mistake?

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 19 Dec 2022 21:59 GMT
• 4 min read

Emi Martinez is now a World Cup winner with Argentina, picking up the Golden Glove for good measure. He could and should have been winning more honours with Arsenal.

Arsenal are an English football institution, one which has won 13 top-flight titles, the last of which was the 'Invincibles' campaign in 2003/04, when they went the whole season undefeated under Arsene Wenger.

Accordingly, they have boasted some of the best players the game has ever seen, with the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp lighting up Highbury at the height of the Wenger era.

READ: Arsenal's 10 best transfers of all time

The biggest clubs are often linked with the biggest players, and the Gunners should perhaps be cut some slack when appraising the fact that they missed out on Cristiano Ronaldo and N'Golo Kante over the years, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic reportedly refused to go on trial.

Martinez mistake

But they shouldn't be afforded the same generosity when it comes to Martinez. Signed under Wenger as a 17-year-old in 2012, Martinez spent most of the next eight years loaned out in the English lower leagues.

Martinez was between loan spells with Reading and Getafe when Bernd Leno was signed to be the Gunner's No.1 in the summer of 2018, and won the FA Cup in his stead two years later after the German had been injured.

Arsenal did well to get €21.8 million out of Aston Villa for a frustrated goalkeeper in September 2020, but it turns out the Villans have pulled off a steal.

READ: Emi Martinez's Football Transfers profile

Martinez kept a Premier League best 15 clean sheets in his first season at Villa Park and has added another 15 since. Leno managed 11 for Arsenal that year, lost his place to Aaron Ramsdale, and has now been shipped out to Fulham.

Ramsdale has been an improvement, and Arsenal were top of the league, five points clear of Manchester City, heading into the winter break, but Martinez has outdone him for saves (40 vs. 28), high claims (25 vs. 6) and passes (453 vs. 336) this season, playing for a weaker team.

While Ramsdale sat on the bench behind Jordan Pickford, and presumably Nick Pope, as England got to the World Cup quarter-finals, Martinez played every minute as Argentina lifted the trophy for the first time since their Diego Maradona-inspired triumph in 1986.

Lionel Messi top scored for them with seven goals and three assists, but behind the sure-fire winner of next year's Ballon d'Or, Martinez was Argentina's best player, with penalty shoot-out heroics against the Netherlands in the quarter-final and France in the final.

"I'm very happy for him," Wenger said after Argentina's triumph. "We were aware of his huge qualities. He was determined and had a desire to learn and a big passion for the game.

"Sometimes he went out on loan and didn't even play, but it didn't stop his belief and motivation. When I see him now play knowing what he went through I admire even more his achievement.

"Well done Emi, we are proud of you."

Martinez won the Golden Glove in Qatar. But if you are looking for the Golden dropped Ball, it is Arsenal's.