It seems that it all started with that unlucky defeat at Brentford on the opening day of the Premier League. It all gone south since, as the Gunners are experiencing one of the worst starts in their long club history. And the poisionous darts are starting to go into Arsenal’s direction on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s the club’s legends like Paul Merson („I’d do a better job as a sporting director, I tell you now. I’d do it for nothing“), sometimes it’s the former bitter rivals like Roy Keane (about Saka when he played for England: I’m sure he’s going to enjoy the win because he’s not getting many at club level), and now it’s former players. Gunners’ transfer policy is all about preparing for a bright future – but what about the present?Emiliano Martinez, former Gunners keeper revealed recently that he didn’t want to join Arsenal in the first place. The Argentinian came to Emirates stadium in 2010, as a 17-year old kid in a 167 million Ksh move and stayed in North London for the next 10 years as a backup to Bernd Leno, Petr Cech, David Ospina, Wojciech Szczesny, Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone and Manuel Almunia. He was also loaned out to Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe and Reading before finally leaving for Aston Villa in 2020 for a heafty 3 billion fee. And just now, after so many years, and with Arsenal is a big crisis, he revealed how his transfer to London came about. „Arsenal came to look for me and Pepe Santoro, a coach at Independiente told me that the train only passes once in a lifetime. My family and my agents thought the same. So, the decision was more for them than anything else.I didn’t want to go. I did not regret it, but I wanted to play in Independiente. For a while, I thought: ‘If I stayed, in two years I will make my debut. My family lacked a little financially. I did it more for that than sports“ said Martinez to El Pais. 19:00 (2.75) South Africa (3.0) Ghana (2.75)It’s a bit different statement to the one he gave to Sun earlier: „My mum Susana and my brother Alejandro were crying when I was leaving for London and saying ‘Please don’t go’. But I had also seen my dad Alberto crying late at night because he couldn’t afford to pay the bills. I remembered the days that me and my brother ate and not my parents, so I knew exactly what they were going through. At that time I was living in Buenos Aires and playing for Independiente and I would only see my family twice a month because they couldn’t afford the petrol to drive from their home in Mar Del Plata. So when Arsenal offered to buy me, I had to be brave. I was 17-years-old and I said ‘yes’ for my parents“ explained Martinez then. Having made just 38 appearances for Arsenal during his 10-year stay at the Emirates, Martinez admitted he left for Aston Villa due to a lack of trust shown in him. Martinez kept 15 clean sheets in 38 games last year. Only Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson and Chelsea shot-stopper Edouard Mendy kept more.
