Aston Villa manager Unai Emery would not be drawn on Emiliano Martinez’s absence from his squad against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Reports emerged this weekend that the Argentina international has agreed terms with Manchester United over a move late in the transfer window.
While the transfer has not been completed, and the Red Devils continue to be linked with Royal Antwerp’s Senne Lammens as well, Martinez may have played his last game for Villa.
The former Arsenal man was not named in Emery’s squad for the Eagles coming to Villa Park on Sunday.
However, the Villa boss was keen not to give too much away, and did so in slightly strange fashion.
Asked for the reason for Martinez being absent, Emery said: ‘Marco Bizot.’
Bizot is the Dutch goalkeeper signed from Brest over the summer who started against Palace in place of Martinez.
Emery was then asked where Martinez is and he replied: ‘Marco Bizot.’
In another attempt to get anything out of the manager, he was asked if he will be his future goalkeeper and Emery said: ‘Marco Bizot. Ok the time is over. Thank you.’
Beforehand, on the game to come, Emery said: ‘We are competing and of course we feel strong here at home and we need to try to keep the consistency. The line-up more or less is with the players that we can get the right structure and evidently we have lacked something more in attack in the last two matches. Today we want to win and we need to score to win. Hopefully with our supporters today we can recover our full energy, dominate the play and be the protagonists when we play and play with personality.
‘Crystal Palace play fantastic and they had a good impact in the league, FA Cup and the Community Shield that they won. Even when they are changing some players they are being strong because they have a strong structure tactically. We are fighting always against them and last year not winning, this is our challenge.’
If Martinez does move to Old Trafford then he will sort the goalkeeping situation out which currently sees both Altay Bayindir and Andre Onana really struggling for form.
It was Bayindir’s howler that gifted Burnley their second goal on Saturday, through Jaidon Anthony, before Bruno Fernandes scored an injury-time winner to secure United’s first victory of the campaign on Saturday, dramatically triumphing 3-2.
Andre Onana was given the chance to impress against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup in midweek, but failed to do so as the Red Devils were stunned by the League Two club, losing on penalties.
