Welcome Angel Martinez!

Chesterfield have signed a midfielder today, a position in which we really did need an improvement! He comes in the form of 29 year old Spanish Midfielder Angel Martinez, who has experience playing in the Championship, and in the Spanish top flight. He was also capped by Spain at U-21 level.



He is a player that Saunders has been watching for a while, and he flew in from Spain yesterday to watch the Spireites in action at Brammall Lane. With  Sam Clucas, Jimmy Ryan and Gary Roberts all leaving this summer, the midfield has been an area which really needs work, with Saunders having to rely on players such as Ollie Banks and Dan Gardner, who are just not good enough for this level.

He started off his career at Spanish club Espanyol's reserve team, Espanyol B. In his time there between 2005-2007, he played 27 games and scored a total of 5 goals from midfield. In the 2006-2007 season, he started playing for the first team, and featured in seven la liga games. He also made two appearances in Espanyol's UEFA Cup run, in which they finished runner up. In his next season, Martinez made 28 league appearances for the Spanish club, scoring in big wins over Sevilla and CA Osasuna. After that his career went downhill for Espanyol, and in 2009-2010 (his last season for the club) he was loaned out to Rayo Vallecano for the season. In 2010 he signed for Girona FC, and spent the whole season there featuring 36 times, helping the team to 11th place. In 2011, Martinez joined then Championship side Blackpool, where he stayed for three seasons. In his three seasons at the club, he made 65 appearances, 26 of which came in the 2013-14 season. In that season he helped Blackpool to avoid relegation, and was also voted as the club's Community Player of the Year. Last season he played for then Championship side Millwall.

With Martinez's signing, Saunders has a much stronger squad than he did at the start of the season. Lee Novak's signing, which took place on Friday, also gives Saunders more options when picking his side. Martinez has signed a two year deal with us, and let's hope he can sort out our shortcomings in midfield.

If it were up to me, this would be the squad we start with from now on:

GK: Tommy Lee
LB: Dan Jones
CB: Ian Evatt
CB: Sam Hird
RB: Drew Talbot
LM: Gboly Ariyibi
CM: Angel Martinez
CM: Sam Morsy
RM: Jay O'Shea
ST: Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
ST: Lee Novak

Subs: Cairns, Raglan, Onovwigun, Banks, Gardner, Gnanduillet, Orell

If Saunders goes with this squad, it will give him a solid defense, two brilliant central midfield players, two very direct and skillful wingers in O'Shea and Ariyibi, and two experienced strikers that are sure to score goals in Novak and Blake. Also, with players like Raglan, Banks and Gardner to fall back on, we really do finally have some in depth strength in the squad.