Garth Crooks slams Arsenal for selling Emi Martinez

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BBC pundit Garth Crooks has sung the praises of Aston Villa goalkeeper, Emi Martinez, and insisted that Arsenal will still be upset they let him go last year. 

Martinez played a key role for Villa at the weekend as Steven Gerrard got his first win in charge since making the switch from Rangers. The Argentinian stopper has been exceptional ever since signing from Arsenal. At the time, the Gunners sold Martinez for around £17m while Dean Smith was in charge.

Of course, since then, Arsenal have spent big on replacing Martinez with England stopper Aaron Ramsdale. And while Ramsdale is impressing for the Gunners of late, Crooks – selecting Martinez in his latest team of the week – believes Arsenal will still regret losing the stopper.

“The save by Martinez from Brighton’s Leandro Trossard suggested the Argentine was back in business. The save from Tariq Lamptey’s shot just before half-time was even better,” Crooks wrote for the BBC.

“The keeper was off his line like a shot and quick to deny the full-back any opportunity. I’ve only seen Martinez have one shaky performance this season and that was away to Arsenal, the club who should never have let him go to Villa in the first place. Martinez was the best keeper the Gunners had at the club at the time – the thing was Arsenal never knew it. Which was rather strange, because everyone else did.”

Martinez will no doubt play a key role under Steven Gerrard at Villa. The former Liverpool skipper is used to having a top stopper in his team, with the likes of Pepe Reina and Jerzy Dudek among those who enjoyed success with Gerrard.

TBR’s View: Arsenal should have kept Martinez but hindsight is wonderful

Everyone can see that selling Martinez was a mistake for the Gunners. But at the time, they probably thought they were getting a good deal and with Bernd Leno in there, letting Martinez go wasn’t the end of the world.

Further, signing Ramsdale now looks like a masterstroke. He’s younger than Martinez and on current form, appears to be set for Arsenal’s number one jersey for a good while to come.

So while Crooks is right in that Arsenal should have kept Martinez, in the end, it’s worked out well enough with Ramsdale now in the sticks.