Arsenal face HIJACK of ‘virtually completed’ transfer

Robin Bairner

• 16 Jan 2025 08:10 GMT
• 2 min read

Arsenal’s prospects of landing a marquee signing in the form of Martin Zubimendi, the Real Sociedad and Spain midfield star, have suffered a blow with the revelation that a rival club is making a charge to sign the player.

Zubimendi is a player that Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, has long admired. After fighting off competition from Liverpool, it finally seemed that he would land his man, with reports indicating that a deal had been struck to sign the star from La Real. The Daily Mail described the transfer as “virtually completed”.

With Thomas Partey and Jorginho both out of contract with the Emirates club in the summer and set to move on, there is a clear need for a player like Zubimendi, with the move, which was likely to take place in the summer, making perfect logical sense.

Doubts were raised in Spain over whether the 25-year-old really had committed his future to Arsenal, and now there are fresh claims that Bayern Munich are seeking to derail Arteta’s dream midfield addition.

Bayern target Zubimendi as Kimmich replacement

Faced with the prospect of losing Joshua Kimmich on a free transfer in the summer – Liverpool are among the teams tracking the Germany international – Bayern have responded by sounding out a potential move for Zubimendi, Fichajes reports.

“Zubimendi fits perfectly with the profile that the German team is looking for: a midfielder with technical quality, vision and defensive ability who can fill the void left by Kimmich. In addition, his experience in European competitions reinforces his appeal to the big clubs,” it states.

Bayern’s interest comes as a double blow to Arsenal.

On one hand, it means that the Gunners have less leeway to negotiate Real Sociedad down below Zubimendi’s release clause of €60 million – the figure the Spanish club are insisting the player leave for.

Furthermore, Bayern present very real competition both in terms of what they can offer the player as a financial package but also in terms of realising his ambitions to play at the very top level.

It remains to be seen how Arsenal will respond to this new threat.