Nigel Martyn has revealed the reason he turned down a transfer to Chelsea from Leeds United in 2003.
Martyn was subject of interest from Chelsea during the 2003 summer transfer window, with the West Londoners recently taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Chelsea were seeking an experienced goalkeeper to compete with Carlo Cudicini, in a transfer window that saw the Blues spend massive money on a host of new names.
Damien Duff, Joe Cole, Juan Sebastián Verón, Hernán Crespo, and Claude Makélélé were among the new arrivals, though Martyn rejected the ambitious project in favour of a move to Everton.
The former England international was named Everton’s Player of the Season in 2003/04, and helped the club to Champions League qualification the following season. Chelsea, meanwhile, reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2004, before winning a first Premier League title under Jose Mourinho a year later.
Asked about the decision, Martyn told ToffeeWeb’s Once a Blue podcast that family reasons and a more regular role convinced him to turn down a Chelsea team spending huge sums.
“I think, given the age I was, we made the decision that we didn’t want to uproot the children from school,” he said.
“They were very settled. My son was probably coming up to his GCSEs, probably going into A-levels, and my daughter was pushing through into that sort of time. So we felt it was very important to try and keep them based and not uproot them again.
“Financially, it would have obviously been a lot better for me to have gone to Chelsea at the time, they would have put me on more than I was earning at Leeds. But I went to go to play for Everton because David Moyes had hinted there was a strong chance of me actually playing some games. And I didn’t want to finish my career sitting on the bench.
“I wanted to finish playing football. It wasn’t my best financial decision, shall we say, but it was the best decision for my family and for me as a professional footballer, wanting to actually be on the pitch and finish my career playing on the pitch and giving my all, which is all I’d ever tried to do.”
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