Emi Martinez has waited patiently at Arsenal.

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Promising youngster, not much playing time

He is only 24 years old (still pretty young for a keeper), but it feels like he has been at Arsenal for about the same length of time.

During this period, he has mainly been doing reserve, youth, and cup duty. Now is the time when he needs to either make it at Arsenal or move on.

The situation at the club with the goalkeeper position certainly makes it look as if he will get that chance.

Emi Martinez came over from Argentina in 2010 at the age of 18.

He had played for the Argentinian youth teams, and was even called into the senior squad in the summer of 2011. He seemed like a good young keeper that the club could groom into a future number 1.

Somewhere along the way though, he seemed to get lost in the shuffle.

Always just out of the mix, he had several short loan spells. These include Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, and Wolves. For some of these he was just an emergency keeper, others a squad rotation player/second keeper. He never locked down a starting place for a full season. A bit worrying, as regular first team football would probably be best for his development.

On the other hand, interspersed with these loan spells were very solid first team appearances in the cup games at Arsenal, most noticeably in the group stage of the 2014-2015 Champions League campaign. Periodically he has come in and done a solid job, only to then be buried at the end of the bench, leaving fans wondering why he isn’t playing more.

Martinez appeared to be caught in limbo.

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