Real Madrid laughing as Arsenal waste £64m on a flop | OneFootball

While much has been made about Real Madrid making a mistake not signing Martin Zubimendi, Los Blancos turning down the chance to sign another international star before he moved to Arsenal is proving to be a smart decision.

AS reported earlier this month that Real Madrid turned down Xabi Alonso’s request to sign Zubimendi before Arsenal struck a deal with Real Sociedad in the summer of 2025.

According to the Real Madrid-leaning Spanish publication, Alonso saw Zubimendi as the perfect midfielder to play in his system and control the tempo, but Los Blancos president Florentino Perez did not agree.

While Zubimendi has been one of Arsenal’s best players this season, Alonso is no longer in charge of Madrid.

Madrid were also given the chance to sign Viktor Gyokeres in the summer of 2025 when the striker was still at Sporting CP.

The Athletic reported on June 17 that Gyokeres was ‘offered’ to Madrid, who were looking for a Joselu-style striker at the time.

Although the Spanish and European giants liked Gyokeres, Los Blancos ‘ruled him out because of the potential cost and because they see him as a starting striker’.

Gyokeres eventually went on to sign for Arsenal, who paid £64million (€73.8m, $85.7m) for his services.

Arsenal were over the moon to have secured the services of the 27-year-old, who scored 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting CP.

The north London club’s sporting director Andrea Berta described the signing of Gyokeres as an “excellent deal” and said that Arsenal were “confident Viktor will have a major impact on the pitch and become an important figure in our dressing room”.

While Arsenal are doing extremely well this season under manager Mikel Arteta, Gyokeres has been far from impressive.

Prolific at Sporting CP, the Sweden international striker has scored just eight goals and given only one assist in 26 appearances for Arsenal so far this season.

Gyokeres has found the back of the net just five times in 17 Premier League starts, with his performance against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday hugely disappointing.

The London Evening Standard gave Gyokeres just 3 out of 10 in its Player Ratings, noting that the striker ‘struggled to win’ the ‘physical battle with Nikola Milenkovic’.

Madrid did not need Gyokeres because they already had Kylian Mbappe, a world-class striker who has scored 30 goals in just 26 appearances already this season, and it was smart of Perez to turn down the chance to sign the Swede.

Arsenal could end up winning the Premier League title this season, but it will not be because of Gyokeres.

Meanwhile, sources have told our transfer insider, Dean Jones, that Real Madrid have been told that Chelsea will sell them their star midfielder, but at the right price.