Until September 1, 2025, Emiliano Martinez was speculated to sign the dotted lines at Manchester United. The Argentine was set to leave Aston Villa after four years and even waved goodbye to the fans after their last game of the previous season.

The two clubs were in discussion right until the end of the transfer window, but with no move materialising, Martinez stayed at Villa Park before travelling to his home to face Venezuela in the penultimate game of the South American qualifiers for World Cup.

According to a Daily Mail report, the 32-year-old even had a word with his Argentine teammate Lisandro Martinez at Manchester United to get an update of what was happening. But nothing worked out as the two clubs failed to come on the same page for the Martinez.

Four days later, Emiliano’s family have broken their silence on the failed move. “I was told that Emi gave a lot as a professional and as a person, they love him, and you could see that on the pitch,” his brother Alejandro told DSports Radio. “He is well-liked, and the directors didn’t want to sell him because he is the key player in the team, and another team wanted him. It was that commercial dispute,” added Alejandro.

“These are decisions made by club officials. It didn’t happen, but it’s like everything else in business. The sporting side of things was left out of it, and everything is fine,” he added before calling his brother as Diego Maradona of Aston Villa.

“At Aston Villa, he’s the Diego (Maradona) of Napoli. He gave a lot at Villa, like Kun (Aguero) did at City, like Leo (Messi) did at Barca. They’re legendary players, and it’s going to be hard to surpass what he did at Aston Villa,” Alejandro further said.

Meanwhile, Emiliano’s father Alberto took the failed move to Old Trafford very sportingly, describing the whole sitiation as “it’s all business.” “This is a job, this is a factory, and factories have employees. He’s just another employee, and the factory won’t let him go if he’s good. Tomorrow it will happen, today it didn’t happen,” he said.

What’s next for Emiliano Martinez?

Due to this whole transfer saga, Emiliano didn’t play two games for Aston Villa in the Premier League before returning back in a loss at Brentford. Marco Bizot started in Emiliano’s absence. With Argentina playing Ecuador in their last of South American qualifiers on September 10, Emiliano is expected to start under the bar.

However, it will be interesting to see if the Argentine returns back to united Kingdom to take the field against Everton three days later.