Remembering past Arsenal players: Emi Martinez, football’s biggest prat

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

You might remember Emi Martinez.  He was actually with Arsenal for eight years (2012-2) but only managed 15 games, although he had loans of Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolverhampton, Getafe and Reading.   Yet no matter how short or long the stay he never played more games for his loan club than those 15 he played for Arsenal.   There was always something about him… at least until, that is, he moved to Aston Villa in 2020 at the end of his contract..,

But even then, with the long-term contract he utterly craved, he couldn’t contain himself.   Goalkeepers rarely get banned, but on 28 September 2024 Martínez did exactly that after he held a Copa America replica trophy in what was deemed an obscene manner..   Later, just to make sure people remembered him, he assaulted a couple of TV cameramen and trashed their camera during an international qualifier.

He was also criticised for talking to and shouting at players as they came up to take penalties in the 2021 Copa America semi-final.   That is one of those offences that was written into the original rules of football as “ungentlemanly conduct” and which can still be penalised by referees if they feel like it. 

Then again in another Premier League game, this one against Manchester Uni,  when Bruce Fernandes stepped up to take the penalty, the keeper demanded to know why Criistinao Ronaldo was not taking the kick.  As a result of this and the ongoing barrage, Fernandes missed the kick.  

Offering the ball of a player who is about to take a kick but then dropping it and kicking it away, is another favoured tactic of Martinez.  On other occasions when facing a penalty, he has been known repeatedly to insist to the referee that the ball is on the penalty spot, advancing from his goal line to protest time and again. 

Among his other tactics, he has also been known to kick the ball away from the penalty spot when a player is preparing to take the kick and to shout at penalty takers as they prepare their run-up, suggesting he knows where the ball is going to be placed.

He has also been booked for “jesturing to” opposition supporters behind his goal, sometimes taking advantage of the rather strange fact that a yellow card for a keeper in a game does not carry over into a penalty shoot-out, thus allowing him effectively to get up to his antics a second time in the event of penalties.  No referee has ever dared to send him off during the penalty shootouts he has faced, as the rules on what happens in terms of a substitute keeper coming on, if all subs have been used, are not clear.

Then there was the time during the pandemic when he broke all the Covid regulations to fly to South America to play for Argentina.  The following year, he was suspended by Fifa for offensive behaviour in international matches.    He finally left Arsenal (much to the relief of some of us) for Aston Villa after being told he only had “95 per cent chance” of starting the first game of the new season in goal for the club.

That statement was of course, quite correct – no one in the club knew what idiocy he would get up to next, and any of his antics could have got him injured or banned..  

His departure to Aston Villa was thus something of a relief for many of us, as he increasingly looked not so much like a player indulging in gamesmanship as a time bomb primed to go off at any minute.

And now, the Premier League’s official prat wanted a transfer to Manchester United so told Aston Villa he was off.  Unfortunately, although Marti wanted Manu, Manu knew his reputation and didn’t want him.  There’s a chance he’ll end up with Desert Sands Rovers in Saudi Arabia.

Of course, Aston Villa may forgive him for so publicly wanting to leave.  But not necessarily.  After all, first and last, he is a prat.