Emi Martinez, having recently renewed his contract, has expressed a strong desire for the club to improve and achieve tangible success. Martinez emphasized the necessity of reducing goals conceded as a pathway to securing a top-four finish and capturing a long-sought trophy.
Emi Martinez said, “If you want to be the best, to be the best Villa or win a trophy, you need to improve yourself from last season. There is a lot of improvement [to be had]. We conceded a lot of goals [last season], it’s something we need to reduce, it’s something I’m trying to work on with Javi and Unai. If we can reduce the amount of goals we are conceding, I think we have got more chance of being in the top four and winning a trophy, something that has been missing for – I don’t know – more than 40 years? It is something that the fans really want. I am talking to Javi [goalkeeping coach], I’m speaking loudly in training saying: ‘We need to win a trophy, we need to at least play a final’. This club and these fans deserve a cup run. That’s the aim [to win trophies]. That’s one of the reasons why I had so many meetings with Monchi and Damian at the Copa America. I love it here, obviously, but I wouldn’t stay at a club where I don’t see progress. Because I want to achieve things, I want to win things, I want to keep trying to be the best goalie in the world if I can. They showed me the plan, Unai’s plan, who Unai wants to sign … we know how he works and it is amazing. I want to be at a club where they are moving forward. With the manager we have got, he was in the semi-final of the Champions League with Villarreal. He won five Europa Leagues … for Villa, it being our first time in the Champions League, it is going to be new for us, but when you have a manager and players like we have you can go all of the way. I know with PSR they can’t really sign as much as the owner wants, it’s going to be a little bit harder than everyone thinks. We had to sell players, which Unai didn’t want, so it is a work in progress. Now it is going to be harder. If we manage to keep everyone fit then we can go [deep]. If we have four, five, six injuries, then we are going to be struggling.”
