Emi Martinez

[john2710]

There's no chance of Martinez going to Man U. Ratcliffe is another Daniel Levy & everything will now be done on the cheap.

But I do think his age, wages & the fee we get means he won't be here by August.

[Somniloquism]

He has spent almost half his life in the UK, and his Mrs* owns a business over here as well. I can see Spain being an easier move because of the language but I'm hoping he doesn't choose to stop in the UK unless it is with us.

*I didn't realise she was a cougar compared to Emi.

[Beard82]

I saw that - re her opening a shop.  I dont think they were expecting to move

[Brazilian Villain]

*I didn't realise she was a cougar compared to Emi.

In Argentina, they're called pumas.

[Percy McCarthy]

The greatest correlation between money and success in football is the wage bill - the higher your wage bill the higher you finish. I think everything the club does in the transfer market is with this in mind; ie: creating enough revenue to support the highest possible wage bill and then getting the best value for money out of that wage bill. You can already see from our wages to turnover ratio that we push this to the legal limit. Emi is rumoured to be on £200k a week and we probably think we can get a really good, younger keeper from abroad for half that, or maybe even less, while the fee will increase our revenue and help support an even higher wage bill. The measure of the success of this policy is our league position over the last two years and the strength in depth of our squad.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

The greatest correlation between money and success in football is the wage bill - the higher your wage bill the higher you finish. I think everything the club does in the transfer market is with this in mind; ie: creating enough revenue to support the highest possible wage bill and then getting the best value for money out of that wage bill. You can already see from our wages to turnover ratio that we push this to the legal limit. Emi is rumoured to be on £200k a week and we probably think we can get a really good, younger keeper from abroad for half that, or maybe even less, while the fee will increase our revenue and help support an even higher wage bill. The measure of the success of this policy is our league position over the last two years and the strength in depth of our squad.

It’s late and I’m tired but isn’t that just pushing the can down the road. We get rid of Emi to release his big wages and also receive a fee but then we replace his big wages on, for example, Asensio and Rashford. I suppose in that scenario you’re slowly chipping away at the wages to turnover ratio so instead of it being 97% it’ll be 92% (this is a guess and not at all mathematically worked out).

All well and good as long as we’re relatively successful in maintaining a competitive team as well as increasing turnover by whatever means in the future.

[Percy McCarthy]

The greatest correlation between money and success in football is the wage bill - the higher your wage bill the higher you finish. I think everything the club does in the transfer market is with this in mind; ie: creating enough revenue to support the highest possible wage bill and then getting the best value for money out of that wage bill. You can already see from our wages to turnover ratio that we push this to the legal limit. Emi is rumoured to be on £200k a week and we probably think we can get a really good, younger keeper from abroad for half that, or maybe even less, while the fee will increase our revenue and help support an even higher wage bill. The measure of the success of this policy is our league position over the last two years and the strength in depth of our squad.

It’s late and I’m tired but isn’t that just pushing the can down the road. We get rid of Emi to release his big wages and also receive a fee but then we replace his big wages on, for example, Asensio and Rashford. I suppose in that scenario you’re slowly chipping away at the wages to turnover ratio so instead of it being 97% it’ll be 92% (this is a guess and not at all mathematically worked out).

All well and good as long as we’re relatively successful in maintaining a competitive team as well as increasing turnover by whatever means in the future.

Yeah, that’s it really (kicking the can). Trying to be as good as we can and working on making the revenue catch up.

[Smithy]

The greatest correlation between money and success in football is the wage bill - the higher your wage bill the higher you finish. I think everything the club does in the transfer market is with this in mind; ie: creating enough revenue to support the highest possible wage bill and then getting the best value for money out of that wage bill. You can already see from our wages to turnover ratio that we push this to the legal limit. Emi is rumoured to be on £200k a week and we probably think we can get a really good, younger keeper from abroad for half that, or maybe even less, while the fee will increase our revenue and help support an even higher wage bill. The measure of the success of this policy is our league position over the last two years and the strength in depth of our squad.

It’s late and I’m tired but isn’t that just pushing the can down the road. We get rid of Emi to release his big wages and also receive a fee but then we replace his big wages on, for example, Asensio and Rashford. I suppose in that scenario you’re slowly chipping away at the wages to turnover ratio so instead of it being 97% it’ll be 92% (this is a guess and not at all mathematically worked out).

All well and good as long as we’re relatively successful in maintaining a competitive team as well as increasing turnover by whatever means in the future.

Yeah, that’s it really (kicking the can). Trying to be as good as we can and working on making the revenue catch up.

The last bit is key.  We're having to do all sorts of PSR jiggery pokery to buy and retain the best players on competitive wages because we've come from so far behind in financial terms.  Every club we're competing against for Champions League places (apart from Forest, who've already had a points deduction for their finances) was a Premier League club while we were in the Championship, and most had multiple European qualifications to their name.

That's a BIG gap to bridge.  We're getting there, slowly but surely - some of the ways we're doing it we don't like, some of the things we're doing we don't mind.  However, until such time as we've built a commercial operation to rival the "traditional top 6" (which currently includes the sides in 16th and 17th place), we are going to find ourselves having to wheel and deal in order to stay the right side of PSR.

I hate losing players we'd rather keep, HATE it, but I've accepted that it's something we're going to have to deal with for at least another couple of years while we try to build the commercial behemoth that comes from regularly being in Europe and at the top end of the Premier League.

Even then, we'll probably lose good players to he likes of Real, Barca, Bayern and others - but at least it will be on our own terms.

[Beard82]

Yeah that all makes sense - it also shows how bad we were during the gerrard period - Olsen, Phil and dendonker all on high wages with little contribution.  We can’t really afford mistakes like that .

[London Villan]

The other benefit of having a long-term manager is that eventually we get a squad that is full of the players he wants and not left dealing with the legacy of two previous managers.

We have several players sat on big contracts that are almost out of the door. That should give us some wiggle room, along with a few sales...

[Monty]

Don't think he's going there in any case but I've suddenly become a big Spurs fan this midweek.

[pauliewalnuts]

Wherever he goes, I just really, really hope it is outside the premier league.

I don’t think I could watch him play for another PL club.

[Dave]

It felt like another emotional farewell, not least because one of the lads in the dressing room surely informed Martinez that if he completed the game against Spurs he would surpass Mark Bosnich for the most Premier League minutes ever played by an Aston Villa keeper.

The clean sheet was a welcome bonus, marking the first time the Argentinean had recorded three consecutive shutouts in the league since March 2022.

That significant defensive improvement has sparked this ridiculous Villa run, with the aberrative defeat to Palace in February a watershed moment. They have conceded as many goals in the nine subsequent league games as they did in those 90 regrettable minutes, since which no side has won more games or accrued more points.

There are deeper reasons behind it – the return of players from injury, improvement in how they work off the ball, a lower defensive line and overall better structure – and Unai Emery deserves immense credit for turning around a season that threatened to peter out.

The frustration that even Champions League qualification will not offset the need to make at least one significant sale is understandable. Martinez, whose stock remains high despite a poor season on a personal level, may yet be sacrificed. But his role in everything up to and including this final push will not be forgotten.

[AV84]

On the financial front, I think if you look at the likes of Newcastle who qualified for CL and then didn't get any European football at all the following season, the decisions we've made seem to be working. I know we could still end up with no European football, but we got into the CL, actually competed in it, got FA Cup SF, and will hopefully get at least Europa, if not CL again. As someone pointed out, we were starting from so far behind the established CL teams, and the jiggery pokery is unfortunately necessary, but if it works it helps us close the gap to those other teams.

[Drummond]

I wonder if it all rests on Sunday's result; qualify for Champions League and he stays, don't and he goes.

He'll know the odds are that we won't make it.