Emi Martinez stance on exit mooted as massive offer needed for Aston Villa to sanction transfer

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez is “fully invested” in the club currently and it would take a “massive offer” to prize him away, according to Alan Hutton.

The World Cup winner had another exceptional season at Villa Park under Unai Emery, keeping eight clean sheets in 34 Premier League games to help the Villans book their place in next season’s Champions League.

Reports had suggested that Chelsea had shown an interest in the Argentine international [Sports Lens, 9 May], but the 31-year-old has seemingly put those links to bed by insisting he wants to win silverware at Villa Park [The Fozcast, 30 May].

Although Hutton admits it will be hard for Emery’s side to finally get their hands on a title of some sort next season, he believes Martinez “loves the club” and won’t be rushing towards the exit door this summer.

“You would hope so,” Hutton exclusively told Villa News.

“All the players that we’ve spoken about, it has been through the spine of the team, Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz, Martinez, these are guys you cannot afford to let go.

“The spine of your team is what you build around so it would have to be an absolutely massive offer, but I get it he’s a World Cup winner now and he wants to go and win trophies which I totally understand.

“But he does love the club, he loves being there and you can see it by how he is with the fans. He loves being involved and he’s fully invested and he’ll want to have a crack at the Champions League.

“It’s going to be difficult, you look at Tottenham and the amount of good teams that they’ve had but they’ve still not been able to get anything over the line so cup runs are big for Villa.

“The Champions League will be big of course, if that doesn’t quite work out can you make a run in the Europa League? These are all chances that you have to win things and I would love to see them win a trophy.

“I was desperate for the Conference League which didn’t quite work out, but I love the way that he loves the club. That’s how I felt about it as well so I totally understand.”