David Ornstein CONFIRMS 'very advanced' Arsenal signing

Tom Weber

Updated: 15 Mar 2025 07:25 CDT
4 min read

Arsenal's talks with Real Sociedad for Martin Zubimendi are 'very advanced,' according to David Ornstein.

The Gunners are gearing up for arguably the biggest transfer window of Mikel Arteta's reign. After failing to take their chance of winning the Premier League title this season - in part due to some disappointing transfer business - 2026 has to finally be their year.

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With Andrea Berta coming in as the new sporting director, Arsenal are prepared to go big in the summer in a bid to avoid a repeat of the past three seasons. The North London club could splash a record sum on incomings in the next window.

On Friday, FootballTransfers revealed that Athletic Club winger Nico Williams has been made Berta's priority target as he still requires convincing to move to the Premier League.

The Spaniard likely won't be Arsenal's first signing of the summer, but he requires the most attention. The groundwork for other deals has already been laid. One of them is the signing of striker target Benjamin Sesko, who already bought into Arsenal's project last year, the other is Martin Zubimendi.

Zubimendi signing close

In January, it surprisingly emerged that Arsenal had managed to sway Zubimendi into seriously considering leaving boyhood club Real Sociedad. The likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid had previously tried in vain to accomplish this.

As we have been reporting, contract terms with the player are not a problem and Arsenal are confident of finally landing Arteta's top midfield target. This has now been confirmed by insider David Ornstein.

The Athletic's transfer correspondent has stated in a Q&A session that Arsenal's deal to sign the Euro 2024 winner is 'very advanced' and Arsenal feel that it is only a matter of time before a deal is struck.

There is still some uncertainty regarding the final fee for the 26-year-old. Zubimendi has a €60 million release clause which would have to be paid in one lump sum. Arsenal are open to paying slightly over the odds to get more favourable payment terms.

Either way, it will be a big outlay for the Gunners and Ornstein believes that Arsenal will definitely have to complete at least one big sale this summer to be able to pull off all of the signings they are envisioning.

“I think if Arsenal are going to commit huge expense on a striker, and if Zubimendi gets done, it’s surely inevitable there needs to be resources raised from a sale or multiple,” Ornstein noted. “It wouldn’t shock me to see a notable player depart this summer but, at the time of writing, I don’t know who that might be.”