Martin Zubimendi gives five-word explanation for turning down chance to join Liverpool in 2024 | OneFootball

Martin Zubimendi has explained his reasoning for turning down the chance to join Liverpool last summer, before eventually making the move to the Premier League this month by signing for Arsenal.

Last August, the Reds appeared to be on the brink of snapping up the midfielder – who’d just won the European Championship with Spain – in what would’ve been our first signing of the Arne Slot era.

Instead, he opted to remain with Real Sociedad due to his ‘unconditional love‘ for the club – a claim which might now ring hollow on Merseyside seeing as he’s since gone and joined one of our biggest rivals.

Zubimendi explains Liverpool transfer snub

In an interview with The Athletic, Zubimendi has shed further light on why he decided not to sign for Liverpool 11 months ago, ultimately pinning it down to a five-word reasoning that ‘it wasn’t the right time’.

The 26-year-old reflected: “It wasn’t an easy time. I wanted to stay at La Real, but when offers come in, you start thinking about your options. The first question I had to answer was whether I wanted to leave – and it wasn’t the right time.

“I felt La Real offered me more opportunities and that I still had a lot to learn, so staying was the best decision.”

(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Liverpool quickly move on from Zubimendi rejection

Obviously it’s Zubimendi’s prerogative to decide what he feels is best for his career, and with his preference last summer being to remain with La Real rather than joining Liverpool, there was nothing more the Reds could’ve done to try and persuade him.

It felt like a hammer blow at the time given that we’d made no signings in the transfer window up to that point and still seemed to be in dire need of a top-quality midfield enforcer, but it didn’t take long for any major regrets over the near-miss to be dispelled.

Slot unleashed the game-changing tactic to deploy Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch as a two-man engine room partnership, with the duo combining excellently to transform the team in that area of the pitch and form the bedrock of the journey towards our Premier League title triumph.

One might wonder whether Zubimendi may have subsequently regretted his decision not to join Liverpool when he had the chance, seeing what the Reds went on to achieve last season, although his ‘connection‘ to fellow Basque native Mikel Arteta suggests that he had no qualms about going to Arsenal.

His presence in the Gunners’ line-up will add an interesting subplot to the meeting of the two rivals when they clash at Anfield on 31 August, when hopefully the result will go the same way as the 2024/25 title race!