Matt Maher: Emi Martinez can only blame himself if left in Aston Villa limbo

The difference this time, compared to a year ago, is the doubt weighs heaviest on the shoulders of the goalkeeper himself and not on Villa.

We cannot know for sure what the short-term holds for Martinez. We do know he is no longer Villa’s long-term plan at No.1.

That honour has shifted to Zion Suzuki, the Japan international 10 years his junior who arrived earlier this week from Parma in a deal worth around £30million.

While Unai Emery didn’t completely close the door when speaking about Martinez on Friday, smiling when he explained it was not bad to have “two great goalkeepers”, the Villa boss also described Suzuki as very much a man for the here and now.

There is a very real chance the World Cup winner, twice named the best goalkeeper on the planet and possibly the best in Villa’s 152-year history, risks being left in limbo should he fail to find an exit route between now and September 1.

For that, he only has himself to blame. It really didn’t have to be this way.

Villa moved for Suzuki partly out of a desire to bring clarity and avoid a repeat of 12 months ago when the noise around Martinez disrupted the start to the campaign.

For those who need a reminder, the keeper was left out of the squad for a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Place by Unai Emery due to concerns he had lost focus, before spending deadline day waiting at Bodymoor Heath for a call from Manchester United which never arrived.

Villa had been ready to move for Antwerp’s Senne Lammens should Martinez depart. As it was, United signed Lammens instead, Martinez stayed and played a key role in the club’s most successful season for three decades.

Any wounds which last summer’s saga might have opened between the keeper and supporters and Unai Emery felt healed. That certainly felt the case in the early weeks of the current window, when Villa took the unusual step of briefing journalists the keeper was not for sale, director of football operations Damian Vidagany even going on record to stress how much a part of Emery’s plans Martinez remained.

And yet, right from the start of the summer, there was once more noise. This time it came from Juventus and if Villa weren’t actively looking to sell Martinez, it didn’t require too much sleuthing to work out who was giving them encouragement. For the second year running, the narrative around the player was being set by his representatives. Yet for the second year running, as things stand, they appear to have over-estimated the level of interest.

When Juventus indicated earlier this month they would be willing to increase their bid, it coincided with Suzuki’s proposed move to Paris Saint-Germain breaking down. Villa, who had long had the 23-year-old near the top of their target list, saw their chance and took it, pushing ahead even when discussions over Martinez’s departure broke down.

Suddenly the man who barely a year ago was being announced to the crowd as the world’s No.1, wasn’t even Villa’s.

Martinez’s performances last season, as though the chaos of the previous summer had never occurred, demonstrated the thickness of his skin and ability to shrug off personal setbacks.

He even found time, during the Europa League celebrations, to take aim at those who had reported, accurately, on his attempt to leave.

“People were saying I was going to Manchester United, they were wrong!” he declared, while standing on an open top bus in Broad Street.

It’s funny because, for much of last summer, Martinez himself was the man saying it.

That said, you have to wonder whether deep down there isn’t currently a tinge of embarrassment.

In a window when team-mates have secured high-profile moves to some of the biggest clubs in Europe, he suddenly looks a little unwanted.

Juventus - who finished sixth in last season’s Serie A and won’t play in this year’s Champions League - weren’t prepared to go above £8.5million. The lack of a market for Martinez’s services seems rather contradictory to his billing as one of the world’s best. Most of the world, we must assume, is unconvinced. The fact he remains at Villa after nearly two summers of his representatives attempting to engineer an exit does not say a huge amount for their work either.

None of which should detract from what Martinez has achieved at Villa since joining from Arsenal nearly six years ago.

His standing as an all-time great is assured, regardless of how the next few days, weeks or months pan out. Suzuki, for all his promise, has considerable gloves to fill.

It is not just about the saves, many of which will live long in the memory. It is also the attitude, the swagger, the sheer belief he could take his performances and also that of Villa’s to places few would have believed. There is no denying his character has changed the club’s culture for the better.

But that same personality, when pushed too far, can also become tiresome. It is in the transfer market where Martinez’s confidence appears to have been misplaced.

It is for that reason one of the most important players of recent history is likely to leave in circumstances neither he, nor anyone else, will find particularly satisfactory.