Emi Martinez

[KevinGage]

I just find it kind of surprising that some people admit the next window is key, and seem convinced we’ll do what we need to do. We have a hell of a lot of work to do and we’ve got a catalogue of evidence to show we consistently don’t make that step.

Yep.  Don't forget, those new players will need to blend in as well. So another 6 months > season can be written off as a season of transition, if so inclined.

[edgysatsuma89]

Whenever I’ve seen Meslier I’ve failed to see the hype around him.

Whenever he's mentioned on podcasts it is to do with him being good with the ball at his feet, "modern keeper yadda yadda yadda" and they expect him to go to a 'top' club.

[edgysatsuma89]

I'm also of the opinion Martinez won't be going anywhere as clubs won't be able to afford him*

*unless there is a contract clause.

[Dave]

Whenever I’ve seen Meslier I’ve failed to see the hype around him.

Whenever he's mentioned on podcasts it is to do with him being good with the ball at his feet, "modern keeper yadda yadda yadda" and they expect him to go to a 'top' club.

On the other hand, it seemed like everyone (including me) felt that Aaron Ramsdale was a hopeless fraud who kept getting his teams relegated, but £30m later and Arsenal fans think he's one of the main reasons they might win the league.

Maybe Meslier is the same and it's one of those positions where you have to be watching them all the time to really know.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.
He’s good and if he saved us 10 points a season we could potentially get some of that back by buying a more ruthless striker or a more consistent winger or creative midfielder. A fair few keepers make a lot of great saves but not being fans of those clubs we don’t see as many of them as we do of Emi’s, he’s got the swagger and all the rest of it as well as the saves that’s the thing.

[Risso]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.

It didn't work out that way when we sold Grealish.

[PaulWinch again]

I think Newcastle have shown it can be done.

Well, yes. When they had the opportunity they chucked £70m at the two massive holes in their team so that they got much better, and jumped half a dozen places in the league in the second half of the season.

That's not really the route we've chosen.

Not yet. Guimares was an excellent Jan buy last year. Isak joined in the summer. Gordon just now and I have no idea if he’s worth £45m. They’d added astutely across two windows with a settled back room staff. It’s way too early to know for sure if we got it completely wrong all because of one window where we probably should have been a bit more aggressive.

Sure. It's not impossible that Bailey, Watkins and Traore score twenty goals between them and we finish sixth.  Stranger things have happened.

But in the world where that doesn't happen and we finish somewhere between 9th and 13th, we're never going to look back at January '23 and say "not buying the players we needed back then is where it all started to go right".

Our version of Newcastle's previous January is where we don't talk to that pretty Guimares girl because she might laugh if we try to kiss her, and saying that we won't win the league with Chris Wood and he might be £2m cheaper in the summer anyway so why bother buying him now?

Exactly.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.

It didn't work out that way when we sold Grealish.

Correct but no matter how good Martinez is he’s not as integral as Grealish was to us and will be more ‘easily’ replaced.

[LeonW]

I think Newcastle have shown it can be done.

Well, yes. When they had the opportunity they chucked £70m at the two massive holes in their team so that they got much better, and jumped half a dozen places in the league in the second half of the season.

That's not really the route we've chosen.

Not yet. Guimares was an excellent Jan buy last year. Isak joined in the summer. Gordon just now and I have no idea if he’s worth £45m. They’d added astutely across two windows with a settled back room staff. It’s way too early to know for sure if we got it completely wrong all because of one window where we probably should have been a bit more aggressive.

Now, if by end of August our net spend isn’t significant then we will have fucked things up. There will be no excuses this summer not to seriously improve the what we have. And I think amongst the biggest changes we will see is Lange being replaced by someone Emery wants in that role.

If Lange is going to go it needs to be now. The longer that decision is left with another window coming up, the more damaging it is to the summer business. Having said that Toronto, I think I’m broadly where you are; hoping that in the summer we see the club show some serious intent as there is now no excuse with an elite manager in place, but deep down knowing it won’t happen.

[LeonW]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.

It didn't work out that way when we sold Grealish.

Correct but no matter how good Martinez is he’s not as integral as Grealish was to us and will be more ‘easily’ replaced.

All elite players are integral and replacing them is notoriously hard, especially with where we are right now. We have a track record of failing to do that over many decades. Even Spurs who are much further along then we are understood that keeping Kane was much better than having the money to try and replace him. They learnt that from Bale. We have never learnt that lesson.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.

It didn't work out that way when we sold Grealish.

Correct but no matter how good Martinez is he’s not as integral as Grealish was to us and will be more ‘easily’ replaced.

All elite players are integral and replacing them is notoriously hard, especially with where we are right now. We have a track record of failing to do that over many decades. Even Spurs who are much further along then we are understood that keeping Kane was much better than having the money to try and replace him. They learnt that from Bale. We have never learnt that lesson.

I stand by that it’ll be easier to replace a keeper than it has been an enigmatic fulcrum of the team. Spurs will be the same when it comes to Lloris and Kane even withstanding the talent difference between the two keepers.

[Meanwood Villa]

Spurs should have replaced Lloris about five years ago. Complete bag of shite.

[Dave]

Spurs should have replaced Lloris about five years ago. Complete bag of shite.

So...around the time that he won the World Cup and the season before he helped them get to the Champions League final?

[Meanwood Villa]

Yes. I've no idea how he's had the career he has, he's shit.

[LeonW]

If he wants to go and anyone else for that matter I’ll thank him and wish him well but we’ll move on. We won’t get a replacement as good as him but I’d like to think another area of the team will be vastly improved instead.

It didn't work out that way when we sold Grealish.

Correct but no matter how good Martinez is he’s not as integral as Grealish was to us and will be more ‘easily’ replaced.

All elite players are integral and replacing them is notoriously hard, especially with where we are right now. We have a track record of failing to do that over many decades. Even Spurs who are much further along then we are understood that keeping Kane was much better than having the money to try and replace him. They learnt that from Bale. We have never learnt that lesson.

I stand by that it’ll be easier to replace a keeper than it has been an enigmatic fulcrum of the team. Spurs will be the same when it comes to Lloris and Kane even withstanding the talent difference between the two keepers.

I think the current market for elite goal keepers is smaller than attacking players. But outside of that, it should be about Villa actually keeping an elite player rather than losing them or contemplate losing them for a change. We need to buck that trend.