The goalkeeping position is one of the toughest ones for a club to get right in the long term, mainly because finding a long-term dependable back-up is pretty impossible.
If it’s a talented younger player then eventually they will want to move somewhere and play, while older players eventually retire and the process starts again.
Arsenal found themselves in the perfect position last season where Emi Martinez and Bernd Leno offered Mikel Arteta two top quality options, but the Argentine left to join Aston Villa in the summer.
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It’s pretty easy to put this down as a mistake from Arsenal’s part and the struggles of Runar Runarsson certainly make it look like that, but it’s very possible that Martinez offered them no choice and demanded to leave.
He’s been excellent again this season for Villa and he’s shown that he can be a starter for an entire season, so it’s interesting to see that Football Insider have reported that Man United are now monitoring his situation.
It’s suggested that the plan is to move on from David de Gea and Sergio Romero this summer, so if Martinez did arrive then he would battle it out with Dean Henderson for the number 1 role.
It’s a fascinating one for Martinez because he should back himself to play at the highest level, but the last thing he needs is to revert to a position where he’s a back-up again.
Henderson is highly rated at Old Trafford so you have to think the position would be his to lose rather than it being a truly open competition, but it certainly shows that Martinez made the right choice to leave Arsenal.
There are plenty of moving parts here for United as they would need to sell de Gea and convince the Argentine that it’s a good move for him to make, but he’s certainly a name to keep an eye on if de Gea leaves.