Zubimendi makes decision on leaving Arsenal for Real Madrid after being benched again | OneFootball

Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi wants to leave the Emirates Stadium to move to Real Madrid this summer, according to reports.

The Gunners won the Premier League last season as Mikel Arteta guided them to their first title in 22 years, while they also reached the Champions League final.

Arsenal have improved their midfielder with Bruno Guimaraes arriving from Newcastle United and Christian Norgaard leaving to join Everton.

Zubimendi was a key cog in Arteta’s engine room last season but the Spaniard faded as the campaign went on, probably due to the demands of playing so many matches.

Guimaraes and other midfielders are expected to get more minutes than Zubimendi this season and that has so far played out in their first two matches against Chelsea in the Community Shield final and the first game of the Premier League against Coventry.

Zubimendi came off the bench in both matches and now reports in Spain are claiming that a move to Real Madrid, who missed out on Rodri to Barcelona, could now be on the cards for the Spaniard.

Despite Arteta ruling out a transfer publicly, the report insists that ‘rather than spend his time on the bench, he’d prefer to leave the Emirates Stadium’

The report adds: ‘And those at the Santiago Bernabéu seem willing to pursue his arrival, hoping to rectify the tremendous mistake they made a year ago when they let him slip away, even though it was a personal request from Xabi Alonso.’

And the transfer is said to have ‘have the approval of Mourinho, and also of Zubimendi’ with Arsenal ‘willing to negotiate Zubimendi’s departure’ but won’t accept anything less than €75m.

Journalist Alex Crook recently predicted that Zubimendi could go to Real Madrid before the transfer window shuts.

Crook said on talkSPORT: “They need to sell somebody, if you look at the absentees from the squad [in the Community Shield] – no Gabriel Martinelli, no Gabriel Jesus…

“They’re in this luxurious position where they’ve got at least two players for every position, they’ve almost got too many players.

“I wouldn’t rule out Zubimendi going to Real Madrid.”

European football expert Andy Brassell is backing Zubimendi to show top form this season if Arteta gives him a chance in the starting XI.

Brassell said on talkSPORT earlier this month: “I think he could still be a success in the Premier League.

“I think with the amount of games that Arsenal are still hoping to play this coming season and the amount of games you’d expect Arsenal to play in this coming season, they shouldn’t be ushering him out the door.

“They should be holding on to him because we’ve seen that he’s a top-level player.

“He’s a trusted Rodri replacement for the national team. He’s done that well in successive finals in Euro 2024 and in World Cup 2026.

“So I think it would be very short-sighted, especially when you look at the physical condition that Declan Rice finished the World Cup in. I think it’d be really short-sighted for Arsenal to get rid of him now.”

On where Zubimendi could end up, Brassell added: “With that said if they are going to get rid of him I feel that I wouldn’t get rid of him to Chelsea because there would be huge potential for that to bite them on the backside.

“Real Madrid I think makes a lot of sense for the reasons that you’ve outlined [a return to Spain] or the fact that they’ve missed out on the aforementioned Rodri or they look like missing out on the aforementioned Rodri.

“I think he would add a lot to [Jose] Mourinho’s Real Madrid because I think if you look at Mourinho teams in the last few years over the last couple of cycles, you look at Benfica, you look at Fenerbahce, you look at Roma.

“If I could have changed anything about most of those teams, I think: ‘can we have a little bit more mobility in midfield, please?’ And that’s what Zubimendi is really good at.

“He’s not just a holder who stays. He’s someone who’s really good at bringing the ball out, really mobile.

“And you think if they’re going to get to a point where they play Aurelien Tchouameni either as a third centre-back or just one of two centre-backs, which is a possibility or whether you’re going to have him next to Zubimendi.

“Zubimendi works in either of those places, I think, and to have someone who would do that to allow Jude Bellingham the ability to really make those late runs into the penalty box. I think he’d be really good for them.

“Of course, the other connection is he’s a Real Sociedad guy just like Xabi Alonso.

“So Xabi Alonso is more than aware of him, but I just don’t see Arsenal sanctioning that.

“Especially as they know he’s a player who has had a tough time rather than a player who’s not good enough, so Real Madrid makes the best sense for me, but I think Arsenal should hang onto him.”