How Manchester United beat Arsenal to signing Lisandro Martinez

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How Manchester United beat Arsenal to signing Lisandro Martinez image

Erik ten Hag has explained how Manchester United beat Arsenal to the signature of Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez in the summer transfer window.

  • Lisandro Martinez could have joined Arsenal
  • Defender pushed for Man United move
  • Martinez reunited with former coach Ten Hag

WHAT HAPPENED? Martinez completed a big-money move to United from Ajax in July, reuniting with Ten Hag in the process. The Dutch manager had swapped Johan Cruijff ArenA for Old Trafford two months prior, at which point Martinez was still mulling over his options. Ten Hag has now confirmed that the Argentina international was all set to join Arsenal before reaching out to him about potentially joining United instead.

WHAT THEY SAID: Speaking to Dutch publication Voetbal International, Ten Hag revealed: "Martinez himself wanted to leave Ajax. If we hadn't taken him, he would have gone to Arsenal. They wanted him anyway, he was top priority there.

"Licha called me at one point: 'Trainer, listen, I'm leaving Ajax anyway. I can sign with Arsenal, but if you want me, I'm going to Manchester United'. I thought I shouldn't shoot myself and United in the foot. He really wouldn't stay in Amsterdam, that was out of the question. Then we struck and it all worked out."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: While there were question marks around the centre-back's 5'9 height when he first arrived in the Premier League, the defender has grown into a solid performer for the Red Devils. Martinez is now determined to win a trophy with United in his first season following his World Cup heroics with Argentina in Qatar.

WHAT NEXT FOR MARTINEZ AND UNITED? While Martinez continues to celebrate Argentina's World Cup triumph in his homeland, his club teammates at United returned to action on Wednesday night with a 2-0 win over Burnley in the Carabao Cup Round of 16.

The Red Devils next face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on December 27.

Premier League 2022/23 TV channels, live streams

Region TV Streaming
Australia Optus Sport
Canada

fuboTV

Hong Kong Now TV
India Star Sports Disney+, Hotstar, JioTV
Malaysia Astro SuperSport Astro Go
New Zealand Sky Sport Sky Sport Now, Sky Go
Singapore StarHub StarHub TV+
UK Sky Sports, BT Sport NOW TV, Sky Go, Amazon Prime
USA USA Network, Telemundo, Universo fuboTV, Peacock

UK: Matches are carried across Sky Sports and BT Sport streaming and TV platforms, with select matches on Amazon Prime.

USA: Select matches are televised on USA Network (English) and Telemundo or Universo (Spanish), and all three channels can be streamed on fuboTV. The rest of the matches are streamed on NBC platform Peacock for subscribers.

Canada: Every Premier League game this season is live streaming exclusively via fuboTV in Canada.

Australia: Fans in Australia can stream every match live and on demand on Optus Sport

India: Star Sports network has the rights to show Premier League matches in India. As well as an English broadcast on Star Sports Select, select matches will be available via regional feeds on Star Sports 3 (in Bengali, English, Kannada, Malayalam), Star Sports 1 (Bangla) and Star Sports 1 (Tamil).

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