By OkayGoal 
A story doing the rounds via Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, and since picked up by British tabloids, claims Chelsea are being encouraged by manager Xabi Alonso to make a move for Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi, with the same report suggesting Real Madrid are also monitoring the situation.
Would Arsenal be willing to sanction a Martin Zubimendi transfer?
The logic behind the story is fairly coherent, even if the transfer itself feels unlikely. Zubimendi’s position in Arsenal’s midfield has reportedly become less secure following the club’s big-money capture of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, with Declan Rice and Guimaraes now the presumed first-choice double pivot under Mikel Arteta. That would, in theory, leave Zubimendi as the odd man out, a serious player suddenly short of nailed-on starts at a club chasing the Premier League title and, more pressingly, a first Champions League trophy.
There’s also an obvious personal connection worth flagging: Alonso worked closely with Zubimendi at Real Sociedad before the midfielder’s move to Arsenal last summer for a reported £60 million. The managerial relationship is real, even if the transfer chatter itself remains speculative and largely originates from a single Spanish outlet.
Mundo Deportivo reportedly values Zubimendi at around £77 million were Arsenal to sanction a sale, a striking number for a player who arrived for £60 million just twelve months ago and won the Premier League title in his debut season, but broadly in line with where midfield fees currently sit across Europe.
Whether Arsenal would actually sell to a direct Premier League rival is another matter entirely, and Chelsea’s own transfer history with Arsenal has generally run in the opposite direction.
What does Zubimendi bring to Chelsea?
It’s also worth pausing on the profile itself. Zubimendi is a deep-lying, possession-retaining pivot rather than a ball-progressing, chance-creating midfielder, he’s excellent at winning aerial duels and keeping the ball ticking over, less so at the kind of forward passing and key-pass output that unlocks defences.
If Chelsea are genuinely in the market for a creative outlet from deep, data-driven comparisons suggest a younger, more progressive alternative (someone in the Adam Wharton mould, for instance) might offer more upside, even if Martin Zubimendi remains the safer, more positionally secure option and, crucially, the one the manager already trusts implicitly.
That’s really the tension at the heart of this one: is this a signing driven by squad need, or a signing driven by keeping a new manager happy and feeling backed in the market? Both are legitimate reasons to spend big money but they don’t always point to the same player.
