Sold the wrong keeper

[Mac76]

valuing Leno over Martinez was a case of misplaced loyalty and nothing else - in the old days if a player - including the goalie - was injured and the stand-in did better, then they remained in place even after the other player recovered.

i'm old enough to remember Fergushite being single-minded enough to drop the goalie Jim Leighton for the reply of a cup final after he messed up in the first tie

i hate fergushite but he always kept his eye on what was important - for example playing kids in nothing cup games, whereas both Emery and now Arteta commit too many of our 'better' players

we need some of that single-mindedness - Arteta's teams are loaded with teacher's pets and bad buys from Kia Joorabchian which he then has to do something with

[Letters]

His 15 appearances were enough to show how good he was.. especially in this new way of "everyone wanting to play from the back". There are not many keepers who look at ease barring may be the Man City keeper. Good GK's are hard to come, hence why I value him so highly. I frankly do not see any weakness in his game... his attitude seems spot on too. At a minimum, we should have held on to him for one more season. It would have lit a fire up Lenos ass to perform better... right now, Leno has no competition and he is playing like that too.

Don’t get me wrong, Martinez did great last season and there is certainly a case to be made that we should have kept him over Leno. But we were never going to get £70m for him. And I don’t think it would have been fair to keep him and put him on the bench, he deserved first team football and if Arteta decided that wasn’t with us then it was reasonable to sell him.

[Mac76]

Don’t get me wrong, Martinez did great last season and there is certainly a case to be made that we should have kept him over Leno. But we were never going to get £70m for him. And I don’t think it would have been fair to keep him and put him on the bench, he deserved first team football and if Arteta decided that wasn’t with us then it was reasonable to sell him.

yes £70m's a ridiculous figure

but Arteta got it wrong with Leno and Emi

he's making a lot of bad calls, that's what worries me

[KSE Comedy Club]

yes £70m's a ridiculous figure

but Arteta got it wrong with Leno and Emi

he's making a lot of bad calls, that's what worries me

He is late Wenger mk II

[Letters]

“Anyone would be better than Wenger!”

[Mac76]

“Anyone would be better than Wenger!”

Can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm almost beginning to wish he was still there, at least he tried to encourage creative players more, even if it was all a bit chaotic. The Ozil situation wouldn't be like it was for a start...

But seriously I'd maintain we needed to reinstate the concept of paying the price for failure, but the recruitment sonce has not been good, forst a loser and then a beginner

[fakeyank]

Can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm almost beginning to wish he was still there, at least he tried to encourage creative players more, even if it was all a bit chaotic. The Ozil situation wouldn't be like it was for a start...

But seriously I'd maintain we needed to reinstate the concept of paying the price for failure, but the recruitment sonce has not been good, forst a loser and then a beginner

Nah, I am glad he is gone. I'll take another Emery 20 times over than Wenger est 2006. Even though we are failing with managers, structure at club etc, it looks like we are "trying" to make things better. In an ideal world, we'd have turned everything around right after Wenger but anyone who understands the concept of change will agree that it will take time. Emery was not the answer, Arteta looks like he isnt the answer either and probably the next one will not be the answer.. but we need to keep trying to change and do better.

[Letters]

We had to move on from Wenger.
Not because we’d be far worse under him than we are now, I don’t think we would, but because he wasn’t going to significantly improve us.
The advantage anyone who isn’t Wenger has is that...well, he isn’t Wenger.
He doesn’t have all that history with us and is easier to replace if things aren’t going right.
I don’t want us to be one of those revolving door clubs but the jury is very much out with Arteta right now. And, dragging this back to the thread topic, the decision to make Leno number one and sell Martinez is looking questionable.

[selassie]

Grass is always greener.....

I'm not as convinced as some of you that Martinez is any better than Leno. Yeah right now he is in much better form but...a better keeper in general?

Do some of you not remember Martinez throwing the ball in the net on a regular basis both for us in Cup games and when sent out on loan?

[Dial Square Old Boy]

Leno clearly not to Martinez’ standard. Good, but not good enough. A constant worry.

Said it then, I repeat it now. Leno let’s you down, guaranteed.