By Sir Hardly Anyone
It is surely the biggest indictment so far of the millions of pages of rumours spread across thousands of bloggettas and newspapers that virtually no one picked up in advance on the loan of Emiliano Martinez to Getafe CF, before it happened.
All those inside stories from people really in the know who actually turned out not to be in the know at all! Well what a surprise!! It really makes one feel that Untold’s long term view that none of these stories is based on proper knowledge, at least until the last day of a transfer. Rather all of them are just concepts built from running lists of clubs and players against each other and then picking two at random.
Certainly that notion of random guesswork would accord with last season’s revelation of a success rate of under 3% in the transfer lists. And it is not as if the newspapers and their on line sidekicks have been slow in coming forwards in terms of Arsenal players leaving this summer.
The issues arising from this sudden move now run like this…
First we’ve had three goalkeepers in our pre-season games – Cech, Ospina and Martinez. Ospina has been tipped all summer long to be leaving the premises, but in fact it is Martinez who has gone.
Second does this mean Ospina is leaving?
Third who are our four goalkeepers for the season?
I have no insight into the Ospina situation, but given the accuracy level of transfer tips so far this should mean that with him regularly tipped to be leaving, he is probably staying. Which means we need two more keepers in addition to Cech and Ospina.
Traditionally Arsenal have had three over 21 keepers in the list of 25 nominated players, plus the best under 21 keeper in fourth place. Obviously the fourth choice keeper rarely gets a game, but he does sit on the bench for League Cup matches, and also when we have a real goalkeeping crisis can find himself beached for other games. He will also still play in the Premier League 2 matches.
The obvious keeper now to step up is Matt Macey who was fourth keeper last season, but is now no longer qualified as an under 21, and so if he is part of the squad, he has to be counted in the “25”. He played in the game against Borehamwood.
And the fourth keeper will be…
Well, we also have on the books Deyan Iliev and Ryan Huddart. Iliev is Macedonian and 22 years old, and he missed out last season with a knee injury but seems to remain highly rated by the club and has been retained He is an under 21 international.
Huddart is English and signed a new contract in March 2016 and is an England youth international. He went on loan to Eastleigh last season but was called back in January this year as extra cover after seven games in goal for club in the National League.
I always defer to Andrew on these matters but according to my abacus Huddart still qualifies as an under 21, and so I think he will have the fourth keeper’s shirt this season.
As for Martinez, he’s now 24, and upon the breaking of the news of his departure for the year he said, “I came from nothing and I’m at Arsenal now, one of the biggest clubs in the world, but I’m never satisfied. I was third choice fighting for second spot, so maybe the season after I will fight for No 1. You always need to give more at Arsenal. It’s never enough and that’s what I try to do.”
Getafe were relegated to the second division two years ago, and promoted back to the first last season. Their keeper is Vicente Guaita who has played 75 games for the club after transferring from Valencia. The indications are therefore the Martinez is now indeed the backup for the first team keeper and will get to see life in the Spanish top league. He obviously speaks fluent Spanish, given that he is Argentinian.
Here is the top of the Spanish second division for last season – Getafe’s defence was not particularly worse than other top clubs but not stand out strong.
| Pos. | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Levante UD | 42 | 25 | 9 | 8 | 57 | 32 | 25 | 84 |
| 2 | Girona FC | 42 | 20 | 10 | 12 | 65 | 45 | 20 | 70 |
| 3 | Getafe CF | 42 | 18 | 14 | 10 | 55 | 43 | 12 | 68 |
| 4 | CD Tenerife | 42 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 50 | 37 | 13 | 66 |
| 5 | Cádiz CF | 42 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 55 | 40 | 15 | 64 |
| 6 | SD Huesca | 42 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 53 | 43 | 10 | 63 |
| 7 | Real Valladolid | 42 | 18 | 9 | 15 | 52 | 47 | 5 | 63 |
| 8 | Real Oviedo | 42 | 17 | 10 | 15 | 47 | 47 | 0 | 61 |
| 9 | CD Lugo | 42 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 49 | 52 | -3 | 55 |
| 10 | Córdoba CF | 42 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 42 | 52 | -10 | 55 |
And below is the latest list of Arsenal loans, released players and sold players. Players still registered to Arsenal are show in red.
| Player | Loaned to | Sold to | Price tag / status | Now with… |
| Takuma Asano | Stuttgart | Loaned | ||
| Chris Willock | End of contract | Benfica | ||
| Stefan O’Connor | Released | Newcastle | ||
| Kaylen Hinds | Wolfsburg | £2m | ||
| Glen Kamara | Released | Dundee | ||
| Marc Bola | Bristol Rovers | Loaned | Bristol Rovers | |
| Dan Crowley | Willem II | Unknown | ||
| Wojciech Szczesny | Juventus | £10m | ||
| Emiliano Martínez | Getafe | Loaned |
- How PSG plan to get round FFP and where that plan has gone wrong.
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I would hope that Martinez is going there to play rather than be second choice and warm the bench. At this stage he needs to be first choice in as good a league as he can find.
Our remaining goalkeepers are:-
Name DOB Over 21 Homegrown
Petr Cech – 20/5/82 – Y N
David Ospina – 31/8/88 Y N
Matt Macey – 9/9/94 Y Y
Dean Illiev – 25/2/85 Y Y
Ryan Huddart – 6/5/97 N Y
Hugo Keto – 9/2/98 N Y
Joao Virginia – 10/10/99 N Y
Alex Crean – 1/1/00 N Y
Daniel Barden – 2/1/01 N Y
Arthur Okonkwo – 9/9/10 N Y
Dean Illiev has actually been out for the best part of two years making it difficult to justify him having one of our precious 25 senior squad places. I would think that he will train with the squad until January when a longer term decision will be taken.
I would expect Matt Macey to step up to the No3 slot for the season and Ryan Huddart to be our main keeper at U23 level and the de-facto No 4.
Oops Arthur Okonkwo was born on 9/9/2001 not in 2010
I have already trolled Give Me Sport about this 😀
Would Arsenal in my thinking be needing 11 maximum goalkeepers for options and cover every season in the order of: 3 for their senior team squad, 2 for their U23 team squad, 2 for their U21 team squad, 2 for their U18 team squad and 2 for their U16 team squad? But I can only see 9 goalkeepers have been listed above as the maximum goalkeepers at Arsenal for their 5 teams next season’s campaign. Which means two of their aged group teams, the U18 & U16 will have only 1 keeper each but no cover, for their season campaign next season.
I must say I was surprised when I read that Martinez has been shipped out to Getafe for a season long loan just like Szczsney started being shipped out on loans before he was finally sold. Well, Arsenal are looking to have made their choices as to which 3 senior goalkeepers they will use for their senior team season campaign next season. And except another surprise is in store for us which we’ve not seen, it’s looking now to be Cech, Ospina and Macey in the pecking order that will be our 3 senior goalkeepers for Arsenal’s season campaign in all senior competions next season. And I think Macey will surely keep in the League Cup games next season.
Samuel, there are no longer U21 teams – they morphed into the PL2 which is essentially for players U23 although a goalkeeper is allowed to be over age as are up to 3 outfield players for any match. The players listed are those who were used at U18 level or higher last season. Arsenal publish no match reports for U16 or lower age group games.
All the best Emi in the La Liga! May you come back stronger for the Arsenal next season.
Will always remember your performance in Shanghai in pre-season.