The Blues are understood to be interested in the Arsenal goalkeeper, but would they be better off chasing another Premier League stopper?
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Chelsea FC
Forget Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale – this is the £45m Premier League goalkeeper Chelsea need to sign
The Blues are understood to be interested in the Arsenal goalkeeper, but would they be better off chasing another Premier League stopper?
Jason Jones
By Jason Jones
Published 20th Nov 2023, 19:00 GMT
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Ask any casual observer and they will likely tell you that it was Lionel Messi, that messianic alien with liquid gold coursing through his veins, who won Argentina the World Cup. Through a combination of divine majesty and jaw-clenching defiance, the little gargantuan cemented his reputation as the greatest to ever lace a boot, and enraptured a nation in the process.
The thinking man would, however, disagree. For there is a school of thought, lurking out on the lunatic fringe, that would stubbornly espouse that it was not Messi who ensured Argentina’s ecstasy, but rather Neal Maupay.
According to that grand excavator of rabbit holes, Wikipedia, ‘the Butterfly Effect is a phenomenon which refers to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state’. Or, in other words, one day Bernd Leno is getting poleaxed by a buzz cut nuisance from Brighton, and two years later Emi Martinez is untethering a monstrous left leg to torpedo France’s piqued hopes in the frantic depths of Qatari extra time.
Up Next
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Chelsea FC
Forget Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale – this is the £45m Premier League goalkeeper Chelsea need to sign
The Blues are understood to be interested in the Arsenal goalkeeper, but would they be better off chasing another Premier League stopper?
Jason Jones
By Jason Jones
Published 20th Nov 2023, 19:00 GMT
Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now
Ask any casual observer and they will likely tell you that it was Lionel Messi, that messianic alien with liquid gold coursing through his veins, who won Argentina the World Cup. Through a combination of divine majesty and jaw-clenching defiance, the little gargantuan cemented his reputation as the greatest to ever lace a boot, and enraptured a nation in the process.
The thinking man would, however, disagree. For there is a school of thought, lurking out on the lunatic fringe, that would stubbornly espouse that it was not Messi who ensured Argentina’s ecstasy, but rather Neal Maupay.
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According to that grand excavator of rabbit holes, Wikipedia, ‘the Butterfly Effect is a phenomenon which refers to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state’. Or, in other words, one day Bernd Leno is getting poleaxed by a buzz cut nuisance from Brighton, and two years later Emi Martinez is untethering a monstrous left leg to torpedo France’s piqued hopes in the frantic depths of Qatari extra time.
Were it not for Maupay, Martinez may never have been given a chance to prove himself for Arsenal. Were he never given a chance to prove himself for Arsenal he may never have sealed a transfer to Aston Villa. And were he to never sign for Aston Villa, he may never have been the first Argentine goalkeeper to lift the World Cup trophy since Nery Pumpido, or become the most recent recipient of the prestigious Yashin Award. If there were any justice in this cruel, cruel world, Maupay would already have his own statue in the centre of Buenos Aires.
Regardless, by any metric, Martinez is now one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, and the football world writ large. Which brings us, in a tangential sort of way, to Chelsea. At the present moment in time, Mauricio Pochettino is relying upon Robert Sanchez as his number one at Stamford Bridge. While the Spaniard’s tenure has yet to be marked by anything truly disastrous, it is still hard to shake the feeling that this is not a working relationship that will last forever.
Indeed, if speculation is to be believed, the Blues are already considering a swoop for another beneficiary of the aforementioned Bernd Leno’s misfortune. Aaron Ramsdale was parachuted in by Arsenal to replace the German, only to be seemingly usurped himself by summer signing David Raya. Now relegated to a watching brief, the England international is expected to leave the Emirates sooner rather than later. To quote Michael Scott, how the turn tables.
But if Chelsea are intent on spending big on a goalkeeper in the coming months, perhaps they should instead focus their attentions on Martinez. Granted, at first glance, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the viability of a move. For one, Aston Villa are currently flying high, and the South American is one of the foremost lieutenants in Unai Emery’s revolution. Then there is his contract, which runs until 2027, and his supposed price tag, which teeters at a hefty £45 million. For some, age may be a factor too; at 31, Martinez is no wobbly-legged foal.
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