Chelsea have been offered Emiliano Martínez and are considering a bid for the goalkeeper. The club are in talks with Martínez’s camp, and are also braced for a bid from Manchester City for the World Cup winner’s Argentina teammate Enzo Fernández.
Martínez has told Aston Villa he wants to leave but a move to Juventus collapsed last week after Villa had signed his replacement, Zion Suzuki, from Parma for £30m.
Goalkeeper has been a problematic position for Chelsea in recent seasons, with Robert Sánchez mainly the No 1 but prone to mistakes. Mike Penders, 21, is being lined up to become the first-choice, but the Chelsea manager, Xabi Alonso, selected Sánchez for Monday’s win against Fulham when two Sánchez errors led to goals.
The availability and offer of Martínez has intrigued Chelsea and they are mulling whether it is too good an opportunity to turn down. The 33-year-old is a vastly experienced serial trophy winner. He won the World Cup in 2022 and reached the 2026 final. He also lifted the Europa League with Villa last season and the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2020.
Martínez was not in the squad for Villa’s heavy opening-weekend defeat at Brighton. Marco Bizot started in goal with Suzuki on the bench. Martínez joining Chelsea may solve a problem for both clubs.
Chelsea and Villa have, meanwhile, have agreed a £65m deal for striker Nicolas Jackson to join the Midlands club.
The Senegal international was also a target for Atlético Madrid but is poised to join Villa as a potential replacement for Ollie Watkins, who is expected to join the Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal. Villa also want a centre-back and may target West Ham’s Jean-Clair Todibo.
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City are expected to make an offer for Fernández and any deal would leave Chelsea seeking a replacement before Tuesday night’s transfer deadline. Chelsea previously told City to pay £120m by 14 August or miss out, but the midfielder remains a priority target for City’s manager, Enzo Maresca, who he worked with at Chelsea. Alonso started Reece James and Roméo Lavia in central midfield at Fulham, introducing Fernández from the bench.
City continued their midfield rebuild on Wednesday by buying Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille in a €100m (£85.7m) deal and selling Nico González to Newcastle for £52m.