The former Arsenal and Villa star, who now works as a pundit for Sky Sports, does not believe that Dean Smith’s side can end up in the top six of the Premier League table.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Martinez – who left Arsenal for Premier League rivals Villa in the summer transfer window for a fee reported by The Guardian to be worth £20 million – said that he wants “to be in Europe with Villa next season”.
Merson said regarding the Martinez interview on Sky Sports News (2:42pm, October 3, 2020): “Considering about two weeks ago, if they came 17th, it would have been a brilliant result. They win two league games, and they rest everybody for cup games. It does my n*t, it absolutely does my n*t.”
The Sky Sports pundit added: “If I am the manager of him now, I am pulling him in on Monday and going, ‘Listen here, I am the one who is going to get the sack. So keep this down. If we come in middle of the table, we have a good season’.
“He gets managers the sack, talking like that. That’s how you get managers the sack because the fans start going, ‘Goalie has said top six’.”
Merson concluded: “Top six. Seriously. Arsenal didn’t even finish in the top six. He was at Arsenal last year.”
Being realistic
Villa are a massive club and have a good squad, but it is going to be extremely hard for them to finish in the top six of the Premier League table this season.
Perhaps the Villans could win a Europa League place via the cup competitions, but it really does not seem feasible that Smith’s team will finish in the top six.
Villa narrowly avoided the dreaded drop to the Championship at the end of last season.
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