FanPost

Martínez said to be on a Lufthansa flight to Munich

There are some noteworthy developments in the Javi Martínez-saga that has been the never ending story of the past few weeks/months. As usual, none of this is officially confirmed, everything is mere speculation, but there are a few interesting points that might sign the end of the battle for the Spanish international.

The first came back on Sunday from Spain, when an AS columnist claimed in his blog post that "if there are no last-minute changes, Martínez could be a player of Bayern Munich on Monday." Obviously there had been a number of last-minute changes in this one, so his view was accepted with reservation. However, further developments seem to have happened in the course of the last hours:

1. Two hours ago, the official Twitter channel of ESPN FC posted the following: "Javi Martinez is thought to have boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bilbao to Munich today as his move from Athletic to Bayern moves closer." The flight is due to leave in five minutes and scheduled to land at 14:05 (Central European timezone). Many other sources such as TZ have jumped on this bit of information and their reporters are at the airport of Munich to check whether Martínez is indeed on the flight.

2. The other trace is again a Twitter post. Martínez' girlfriend tweeted: "Buenos días!!! A por el lunes!! Hoy, toca horario duro y estricto!!" I don't speak Spanish, so asked for the help of Google Translate: "Good morning! A through Monday! Today, he plays hard and strict schedule!" I assume that she refers to today as a probably tiresome day for them, due to the hectic schedule.

3. Bilbao are close to signing Benat Etxebarria from Real Betis. He plays the same position as Javi does, which makes him a very likely Martínez replacement for Bilbao. This could be the admittance from Bilbao that they have indeed lost the 23 year old.

These are the traces that go around on the net at the moment. The only sure thing is that we will know more about the case at 14:05 (CET) the latest. Which means we have two nail-bitting hours left until the most expensive transfer of the Bundeslige might take place.

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