Emi Martinez: Scale of change has made it tough for Aston Villa
Goalkeeper Emi Martinez claims the considerable changes triggered by last summer’s departure of Jack Grealish have been a factor in Villa’s underwhelming season.
Grealish left for Manchester City in a £100million British record deal with the players signed to fill the void – Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings – all struggling with form and injury.
Steven Gerrard also replaced Dean Smith as boss in November and though Villa are set to fall well short of their ambitious top-eight pre-season target, Martinez believes there is room for mitigation.
He said: “Obviously there has been investment at the club and everyone expected us to be top eight or top seven but it is difficult when there are so many changes in one season.
“We have been inconsistent but we have to realise we sold Jack, a homegrown player and the best we had at Villa.
“We have had to rebuild and find new players but they need time to adapt. We changed the manager in mid-season too, with a new philosophy. It isn’t as easy as it looks.”
Martinez, who signed a new five-and-a-half year contract in January, is confident Villa will be stronger next season.
In the meantime, he and his team-mates are continuing to target the club’s first top half Premier League finish for more than a decade. Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Leicester left them 15th in the table but they have games in hand on the teams immediately above them.
Martinez, who kept his 10th clean sheet of the season in the draw at the King Power Stadium, said: “The key is to finish top-10. Villa haven’t finished there for the last 11 years and it would be something to build on, to finish above where we finished last season and then next season, we go for it.”
Asked about the gap left by Grealish’s exit, he replied: “He was the best player we had. He was outstanding last season but we understood he needed to make that step.
“The signings we made were really positive but they needed time to adapt. You can see now at the end of the season the inconsistency as well because we have a new manager, a new philosophy. Next season, we will know what to do.
"It has been difficult inside (the club) but we have been very positive and we have double figures in clean sheets now. Saturday we showed how good we are defensively and it is something to build on for the final six games."
