Arsenals Zubimendi the all-round midfielder | OneFootball

Zubimendi to Arsenal: A New Chapter for a Midfield Metronome

Chessboard mind meets high-press football

There are transfers that feel engineered in boardrooms and others that unfold with the quiet logic of inevitability. Martin Zubimendi to Arsenal belongs to the latter. The €65 million deal, confirmed on July 6, is not merely the culmination of interest, it is the arrival of a player meticulously prepared for a stage that demands as much mental acuity as physical output.

Photo: IMAGO

For all the talk of scouting reports and data profiles, it is telling that Zubimendi has long been pursued by managers who played the game in his image. Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso, Xavi. Coaches who know the nuance of controlling a match from midfield. As Javi Gracia told The Athletic, “Martin is a real team player, very honest, hardworking, generous and always committed, with quality in attack and defence.”

This is not an extravagant signing. It is not a headline-grabber in the way a Galactico would be. But it might be the most deliberate, strategic addition to Arsenal’s squad in some time.

A development years in the making

Born in San Sebastian, raised in a household steeped in education and coaching, Zubimendi’s journey to prominence was never about spectacle. His youth career, particularly at Antiguoko where Arteta and Alonso also played, hinted at the depth of thinking that would later become his hallmark.

La Real nurtured him patiently. He did not explode onto the scene. He matured into it. It was Alonso’s influence, during a year with Real Sociedad B, that proved pivotal. “(Alonso) spent more time with me than others,” Zubimendi said, “because he wanted someone in that position who could do the things he liked to do.”

Photo: IMAGO

He would go on to anchor a La Real side that beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, qualified from a Champions League group conceding just two goals, and lifted a long-overdue Copa del Rey. In the shadows of more glamorous midfielders, Zubimendi became essential. The quiet conductor. The one who kept things ticking.

Arteta’s trusted midfield brain

It is no coincidence that Arteta drove this deal. In Zubimendi, he sees more than a holding midfielder. He sees a partner in execution. Arsenal have flirted with fluidity in midfield, but what they have lacked is the structural intelligence to dictate rhythm across 90 minutes. Zubimendi offers that in spades.

Gracia’s assessment is instructive: “In possession, a lot of the team’s play passed through him… He linked the team’s play together, kept it moving.” Arsenal’s own pressing and positional fluidity will not intimidate Zubimendi. He has lived it at La Real and at international level, where he deputised for Rodri in Spain’s Euro 2024-winning side.

Photo IMAGO

There is no mystique to Zubimendi’s game, but there is mastery in its simplicity. His passing lanes are clean. His decision-making is near instinctive. He does not so much control matches as reshape them around his understanding of space and timing.

Premier League-ready and hungry for more

Doubts? They are hard to find, though there were certainly questions about whether he would ever leave San Sebastian. He turned down Liverpool, taking flak for what was seen as a late reversal. “My philosophy is to do what I feel inside,” he said at the time. It speaks to a player who values fit and purpose over opportunity for opportunity’s sake.

That he has chosen Arsenal, when Real Madrid hovered and Liverpool knocked, is a testament to how aligned the club’s vision is with his own. He sees a project that mirrors La Real’s core values, structure, identity, and ambition, but with the resources to compete at the very top.

And so, Zubimendi steps into North London not as a statement, but as a solution. Not as a star, but as a necessity.

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For Arsenal fans, this is exactly the type of transfer that elicits genuine excitement. Not because of flash or social media numbers, but because it feels so right. Zubimendi is the kind of signing that elevates everything around him without ever needing to dominate the headlines.

For years, Arsenal have needed a player who could serve as both organiser and insurance policy in midfield. Someone who can break up play without recklessness, initiate passing sequences without delay, and cover space like a blanket. In Zubimendi, they now have that.

More importantly, his arrival continues the theme of intelligent recruitment. Arteta and Berta have built a squad with layers, and Zubimendi adds a new one, tactical maturity. You look at the players around him, from Odegaard to Rice, and suddenly the spine feels complete.

This deal also signals something else: Arsenal are no longer trying to prove they belong at the top table. They are sitting at it, identifying players before the biggest clubs can act, and executing with conviction.

The next chapter begins with Zubimendi at the base. And it looks promising.