Unai Emery has reunited with Emiliano Martinez at Aston Villa having wanted to lure him from Arsenal to Villarreal in 2020.
Villa have been very busy over the last week.
Steven Gerrard met his demise after a dreadful 3-0 defeat at Fulham and was promptly sacked after the final whistle.
Villa then went and hammered Brentford 4-0 on Sunday, scoring three times in the first 15 minutes.
Just over 24 hours later, Aston Villa confirmed their new manager with Unai Emery arriving from Villarreal.
Unai Emery has reunited with Emiliano Martinez
Almost three years on from being sacked by Arsenal, Emery is back in the Premier League and may feel that he has unfinished business in English football.
Emery heads to Villa with two of his former Arsenal players at the club already.
Defender Calum Chambers is one of them, but it’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez that will really excite Emery.
Martinez only played eight times under Emery at Arsenal, failing to displace Bernd Leno in the Gunners starting XI.
Yet in the summer of 2020 – just months after Emery had left Arsenal – the Spaniard wanted to take Martinez to Villarreal.
The Telegraph reported that Emery really wanted to sign Martinez and the goalkeeper held a strong relationship with coach Javi Garcia, who followed Emery from Arsenal to Villarreal.
It was noted that Villa were rivalling Villarreal in that race and despite the connection to Emery and Garcia, Martinez headed to Villa Park.
Playing in the Premier League seemingly helped Martinez to make that call rather than head off to Spain.
Fast forward just a couple of years and Emery finally gets the chance to reunite with Martinez again.
The Argentinian is clearly Villa’s first-choice goalkeeper and he can now look forward to knowing that his new coach is a huge fan of his game.
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