Ajax chief executive Edwin Van der Sar admits the Eredivisie champions rejected an offer from Arsenal before selling Lisandro Martinez to Premier League rivals Manchester United for a fee of £57 million, speaking to The Athletic.
If there has been a more baffling, wide-of-the-mark criticism of a single footballer so far this season, then we’ve not heard it. Lisandro Martinez? ‘Not good enough on the ball’? The Man United fanbase were understandably a little confused when Graeme Souness called into question the Argentine’s passing range on talkSPORT recently.
After all, you could certainly argue that Martinez, with his surgeon’s scalpel of a left-boot, is not only a terrific passer of the ball, but maybe even the best in his position anywhere in the Premier League. In fact, Martinez’s outstanding distribution was a major reason why Erik ten Hag fought so hard to reunite with his former Ajax lynchpin at Old Trafford, with some at United recommending Villarreal’s Pau Torres instead.
“(Martinez and team-mate Antony) are good players,” says Van der Sar. “Erik knew them. They fit with his playing style. We didn’t want to lose them, so you put a high price on them. (But) when you want a player, you probably pay a little bit more.
For me, it was a fair negotiation with Richard (Arnold, CEO) and John Murtough (director of football). And that was it.”
Arsenal tried to sign Lisandro Martinez before he left Ajax for Manchester United
It is well documented that Arsenal hoped to take Martinez to the Emirates. They saw bids worth £26 and £34 million rejected, before Man United blew them out the water with an offer of nearly £60 million (The Sun).
“Arsenal came earlier for Lisandro,” Van der Sar adds. “But it was an amount where we said; ‘Thank you very much for the offer, but we’d rather keep the player than start negotiating’. With United, it was a little bit different.”
Martinez, silencing those who called into question his lack of height with every full-blooded, bone-crunching challenge, has been arguably the Premier League’s premiere centre-half over the last few months.
Having said that, Arsenal’s defence remains, statistically-speaking, the joint-best in the whole of the division. Only Newcastle United can match the Gunners’ record of 11 goals conceded thus far. William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes have been outstanding thus far for Mikel Arteta’s league-leaders.
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