Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta looking frustrated on the touchline for Arsenal.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has ‘intensified his attention’ on Martin Zubimendi after the midfielder cast doubt over his seemingly imminent move to Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta wants to add a new defensive midfielder to his ranks this summer with both Jorginho – who is definitely leaving – and Thomas Partey both out of contract in June.
And transfer expert Fabrizio Romano confirmed in early May that Arsenal were on the verge of landing the Real Sociedad midfielder as he gave his famous ‘here we go’ confirmation to the deal.
Romano wrote on X: ‘Arsenal agree deal to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, here we go! Zubimendi has now verbally agreed to sign a long term deal… so formal steps must follow soon with Arsenal to trigger €60m clause. Zubi, ready to become the first signing of the new season.’
However, in an interview with Radio Nacional de Espana on Tuesday, Zubimendi insisted that his future is still up in the air.
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When asked if there is a chance he stay at Sociedad another season, Zubimendi said: “Of course there are options, but it’s true that it seems like it’s going to be a different, long summer, and I don’t know how it will end.
“I don’t think thinking about it right now is my priority. I’m here with the national team, which I think is already quite demanding, and if I have to say something, then I will.”
Amid rumours that Zubimendi was completing a medical at Arsenal, the Spain midfielder posted a picture of himself on a beach in San Sebastian.
On rumours of the Arsenal medical, Zubimendi added: “It’s an example of what surrounds football.
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“Many times I wake up in the morning and read things that I didn’t know I had done. That was a clear example.
“It’s true that I don’t take it very seriously, but anyway, I uploaded those photos to emphasise a little that it wasn’t exactly the reality that was happening.”
When asked about potentially joining Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid, Zubimendi continued: “I have always said that he was my idol and that for me it was lucky that he was able to coach me in the reserve team in a very important year.
“The following year I was already in the first team and, well, I don’t like to talk about those hypotheses, I prefer to talk about the present, because I also think that it would be disrespectful to answer from the national team training camp and before facing such an important competition.”
Real Sociedad president Jokin Apperibay said on Zubimendi: “We have told him to go to the national team and calmly think it over. We’d like him to stay here. There are several options for him but any move won’t happen in the short term”
And now a report from Spanish outlet Fichajes claims Perez has been encouraged to push for Zubimendi after the midfielder insisted his future is unresolved.
He’s ‘the name that most pleases Xabi Alonso and the president’, who has ‘intensified his attention’ on Zubimendi, though the report adds that ‘the memory of the signing of Asier Illarmendi continues to weigh on the sports management’.
Illarramendi was a midfielder from Real Sociedad in the same mould as Zubimendi, who joined Madrid for £30m in 2013 before being sold back to Sociedad for half of that two years later.