Martins ready to stay

Arsenal were thought to be lining up a bid to take the Nigeria international to the Emirates after it was revealed there is an escape clause in his contract with Newcastle, but Martins revealed he is in talks with his current club over a new deal and wants to stay at St James' Park.

He said: "We are talking, that is all I can say for now.

"Like I told you before, all I knew about the Arsenal thing was what I saw in the media.

"I am a Newcastle player and my part is to score goals for Newcastle and I am happy to be doing that."

Despite hitting 17 goals in his first season with Newcastle, reports still suggested the marksman would be sold to raise further transfer funds.

But Martins is adamant he will stay and compete with Mark Viduka and Michael Owen for a place in Sam Allardyce's starting XI.

"It's always good to score goals and for me, it is important to improve every season," Martins told Kick Off.

"I scored 17 goals last season so this season maybe I should be looking at doing better than that. Twenty goals is possible and I hope I can do that.

"Both Viduka and Owen are great players and it shows that the manager is serious about achieving something this season. But I want to play all the time and as long as I am scoring goals, I think I can make it hard for him not to play me.

"Even when I am not scoring, I can make myself a problem for the other team and allow my team-mates to score."