Dharmesh Sheth has dropped an exciting claim on the Transfer Talk podcast about Arsenal target Lisandro Martinez.
Last season was an impressive one for Arsenal that saw them only narrowly miss out on the top four, while they did manage to bring some form of European football back to the Emirates Stadium, which will have delighted fans and Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners took big strides forward last season by bringing in a lot of younger players such as Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale, which helped a lot as they managed to keep 12 clean sheets in the league, however, after conceding six goals in their last three games, Arteta looks determined to add more power at the back.
Sheth believes that Arsenal are now very much pushing to sign Ajax centre-back Martinez.
He said: “They’re pushing for a deal to sign the Ajax central defender-come-left-back, Lisandro Martinez, and I think the full-back areas will be areas that Arteta and Arsenal will be looking at.
Will Arsenal finish in the top four this season?
Yes!
No!
“Kieran Tierney, Tomiyasu – very, very good players, fans’ favourites, but also, they’ve had their injury problems and they missed a large chunk of last season.”
TIF Thoughts on interest in Martinez…
Martinez would arrive quite experienced with 118 appearances under his belt at 24, however, it will be interesting to see where Arteta would decide to deploy him, as at just under 5ft 9in, he’s not exactly the tallest player to be playing at centre-back in the Premier League.
However, he does have the support of former manager Erik ten Hag, who labelled him ‘excellent‘ last year.
Meanwhile, as Sheth mentioned, he can also play as a left-back, which was a problem area for the Gunners last season, with centre-midfielder Granit Xhaka having to play in that position at points throughout last season and the one prior, so Martinez’s arrival would at least add decent competition and cover in multiple positions.