A year ago, Martín Zubimendi's arrival at Arsenal was treated as the culmination of a three-year chase by Mikel Arteta. Twelve months on, ONE reports that his long-term future at the Emirates is suddenly in question.
The trigger is Arsenal's £75million move for Bruno Guimarães, prised away from Newcastle United this summer in one of the club's marquee deals of the window. The Brazilian's arrival has crowded a midfield that was already stacked with internationals, and Zubimendi is the player squeezed hardest by it.
It is not that his debut campaign was a failure. The Spaniard started 34 Premier League matches, quickly establishing himself as Arteta's defensive pivot and tempo-setter. But when the stakes were highest, he found himself on the outside.
The clearest example came in Budapest on 30 May, when Arsenal lost the Champions League final to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties after a 1-1 draw. With a first European Cup on the line, Arteta turned to 19-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly in central midfield instead, leaving Zubimendi an unused substitute for the biggest match of the season.
There was a smaller but telling moment away at West Ham United too. Zubimendi was thrown on in the 28th minute after Ben White went off injured, only for Arteta to withdraw him himself in the 67th — hauled off for Kai Havertz after just 39 minutes on the pitch as Arsenal chased a winner they eventually got through Leandro Trossard.
Now, with Guimarães joining Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Mikel Merino and Lewis-Skelly in competition for midfield minutes, ONE frames Zubimendi as a player at risk of becoming collateral damage in Arsenal's aggressive summer rebuild — a full Spain international with no guarantee of a starting shirt.
The uncertainty has not gone unnoticed elsewhere. Reports gathered by outlets including FootballTransfers, TeamTalk and Caught Offside describe Arsenal setting an asking price of roughly €90million, with Chelsea and Real Madrid both credited with interest. Real Madrid, notably, missed out on Zubimendi last summer when he chose Arsenal instead.
Arteta, however, is said to have no appetite for a sale this window. Having spent three years courting Zubimendi at Real Sociedad before finally landing him, the Arsenal head coach reportedly regards him as central to his long-term plans rather than a player to be cashed in on for squad-balancing reasons.
For now, that leaves Zubimendi in limbo: a title-winning-calibre midfielder whose club does not want to sell him, but whose game time is no longer assured, with deadline day still to come.
