Claims that Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has a £22m release clause in his contract with the club have been dismissed.
Speculation has been rife over the 32-year-old’s future so far this summer, as his emotional reaction in our last home game last season sparked plenty of discussion over a potential exit after what appeared to be a possible farewell.
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As of yet, no such exit has materialised as the Argentine shot-stopper reported back to Bodymoor Heath this week to begin pre-season preparations, but it seems as though talk over his future refuses to go away still.
According to the Express and Star’s Matt Maher, reports from Argentina suggesting that Martinez has a £22m release clause in his current contract are not true, and so that will not be the fee required to prise him away from Villa this summer, should a formal offer arrive.
It is added though that speculation around his future continues, and so it remains to be seen if a departure ultimately happens and we’re forced to move in the transfer market to bring in a new No.1 option between the posts.
Villa have already moved to sign Marco Bizot from Brest as a replacement for Robin Olsen to be our back-up goalkeeper option, while Joe Gauci could remain at the club for the upcoming campaign and give us further depth.
Nevertheless, a lot could still change if Martinez were to move on, but if he does, it seemingly won’t be for a low-ball fee of £22m, which would have been difficult to digest.
On one hand, it’s hoped that he stays at Villa, as Unai Emery will surely prefer to continue to build around his core players this summer rather than spending time replacing key individuals, while Martinez still brings quality, experience, leadership and a winning mentality to the group despite his dip in form last season.
However, Villa perhaps have to also think about the long-term future and bringing in a successor, particularly with the club still facing pressure to adhere to UEFA’s SCR rules by lowering our wage bill over the next two summers.
Getting Martinez’s salary off the books would certainly make big inroads in achieving that, but time will tell if any interested party is prepared to satisfy Villa’s demands this summer in terms of a transfer fee, or if he’ll ultimately end up staying for another season at least.
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Don’t you get teed off with this if he stays ok if he goes ok all of this is journos fodder. I’m more interested in seeing players incoming all we’ve had for weeks is just about the whole team leaving it’s all a load of garbage but I’m very disappointed at the lack action it’s all talk we need some quality players or we will be in trouble next season .we had a great start by loosing to a Div 2 team last night which was a shambles and if we don’t do something soon we could easily end up in a relegation battle