Emiliano Martínez’s brother Alejandro has claimed that Aston Villa refused to sanction an exit for the Argentine goalkeeper, whose importance to the club was likened to that of Diego Maradona at Napoli and Lionel Messi in Barcelona.
Martínez had been tipped to move on from Villa Park all summer after he appeared to bid a tearful goodbye to fans at the end of last season. There were whispers of interest from Barcelona at the start of the summer but nothing concrete emerged until the final hours of the window when Manchester United came calling.
