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Manchester United’s sudden pursuit of Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has taken an exciting twist as their main rivals look to be backing off.
News broke yesterday that United have made an offer for the World Cup winner, whose time at Aston Villa looks certain to be coming to an end this summer.
It was reported that the Red Devils were going head-to-head with Barcelona for the 32-year-old, while the spectre of a switch to Saudi Arabia remained in the background.
Despite neither Andre Onana nor Altay Bayindir looking remotely reliable enough to be Ruben Amorim’s first-choice goalkeeper, sources last week indicated that other positions are of a higher priority in the upcoming transfer window.
But with a similar attitude apparently taking hold at the Nou Camp, where the options are already considerably stronger, United may be given a unique opportunity to look again at a move for the Argentinian stopper.
Barcelona’s number 1 Marc-Andre ter Stegen was injured early in the season and replaced by Wojciech Szczesny, who rushed out of retirement to fill his position.
And it seems that the club are happy with their options and want to keep hold of Szczesny, which would make a move for Martinez incredibly unlikely.
TNT Sports in Spain relay Barcelona president Joan Laporta’s recent comments to La Vanguardia in which he was unequivocal: “We want Wojciech Szczesny to stay at Barcelona.”
He continued: “The other day he was celebrating the victory while smoking a cigar. I saw he wanted to stay.
“We also have good goalkeepers in the reserve team and in the youth academy.”
Barcelona’s reticence to pursue Martinez doesn’t mean United will have it all their own way, with Saudi interest unlikely to disappear, and it remains somewhat hard to credit that INEOS would spring so quickly into action for an ageing player regardless of his talent.
Should Martinez end up at Old Trafford, however, it would be a long time coming – former boss Erik ten Hag vetoed a move for the Argentine in favour of reuniting with Onana, who had been his go-to man at Ajax.
In hindsight it’s just one of many poor decisions which has left Amorim with a mountain to climb and a squad ill-equipped to help him.
It remains to be seen whether he will be given a new keeper before next season, and if so how many World Cups they will have won.
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