Arsenal initially showed interest in Martin Zubimendi, the talented Real Sociedad midfielder, before shifting their attention to his teammate, Mikel Merino, this year. Real Sociedad has a reputation for developing exceptional football talents, particularly in midfield, and both Zubimendi and Merino have been instrumental in the club’s recent success, including their qualification for the Champions League last season.
Their performances also contributed to Spain’s Euro 2024 victory in Germany, further raising their profiles. Arsenal has made Merino a key target, while Liverpool has been actively pursuing Zubimendi.
Despite earlier reports suggesting that Arsenal had an interest in Zubimendi, Fabrizio Romano has clarified that Arsenal did not approach Real Sociedad for Zubimendi this summer. Instead, their focus has been solely on securing Mikel Merino. This indicates that Arsenal’s priority in strengthening their midfield lies with Merino, leaving Liverpool to pursue Zubimendi without competition from the Gunners.
Romano said, as quoted by The Sun:
“Many clubs tried to convince Martin Zubimendi in the last couple of years – Barcelona, Bayern, Arsenal, many clubs spoke to the player, he wasn’t keen on the move.
“It’s important to clarify that Arsenal were never negotiating for Zubimendi this summer.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Merino and Zubimendi are two top midfielders, but we certainly cannot sign both in the same transfer window, so we opted for Merino, who is cheaper and just as effective.
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Merino would be good for the depth, but Zubimendi would be a star at 6. We are getting the wrong one out of the 2 imo. I’m gutted if he’s joining Liverpool
You should be our arteta
We’ll need a new no 6 next season, so doing that business preemptively would be smart, especially as there aren’t too many names that come to mind who are top quality which Zubimendi is. Unless Arsenal is trying to get the funds ready to make a huge forward purchase I believe we could easily afford Zubimenndi and bring in Saka’s backup
Sociedad qualified for the ’23/’24 based on its ’22/’23 4th place La Liga finish. It finished 6th in La Liga for ’23/’24 and will play in the Europa League this season. The ’23/’24 UCL tournament was the only time they have played in the tournament while either Merino or Zubimendi were playing for them in La Liga (since 2018 for Merino and 2019 for Zubimendi).
If Zubimendi did not want to play for Arsenal then there was no sense in pursuing a transfer with Sociedad.
U re correct. Since he refused to join Arsenal project, no need to iniate a deal.
I bet we couldn’t afford Zubi’s release clause funds for FFP reasons. Merino was the cheaper alternative. We couldn’t do Raya last year – he had to be paid for this year.
If anyone gets Zubimendi (and that remains to be seen) then that looks like Liverpool.
However, my Spanish friends tell me that Real Sociedad will do everything possible to ensure that both Zubimendi and Merino don’t both leave this summer.
Apparently, that includes an offer (also mentioned in reports today) to Merino of a huge pay rise to encourage him to stay for a final season, after which he’d be a free agent.
Whether he decides to take that or not remains to be seen but if Liverpool were to get their man (and get him first) then Real Sociedad will apparently not sanction the sale of Merino to Arsenal. That would make sense financially as they’d get far more for Zubimendi.