As his former academy boss Xabi Alonso has said, Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi is the sort of player coaches love.
Born in Gipuzkoa, the same Basque province as four current Premier League managers and a football World Cup winner of both genders, the slight general is reportedly in line to become Mikel Arteta’s next Arsenal disciple, either this January or in the summer.
“He’s generous, he always thinks more about his teammates than himself,” Alonso explained. “He has that ability to generate play, to make those around him better, always offering solutions; to improve the move. He understands what the next step is before the ball gets to him. He has that ability to organise, the axis. I loved working with him.”
Zubimendi, 24, has already played in the Champions League for La Real and been capped four times by Spain. As Spanish football expert Graham Hunter tells i, Zubimendi is a brilliantly modern footballer, ridiculing the traditional label and expectations of a holding midfielder.
“A pivote, which Zubimendi is, is someone that’s supposed to be genuinely pivotal,” Hunter says. “He’s a terrifically gifted footballer. He’s got things that are very important, particularly in La Liga.
“Zubimendi has matured in the hothouse atmosphere of the Europa League and Champions League. I like the elite side of his game. He will fight and push, play quite high up the pitch and although he’s not a natural scorer, he will look to create and score in desperate situations. It’s about competing and winning for him.”
Barcelona, PSG and Bayern have all been linked with Zubimendi, while Spanish football expert Sid Lowe said recently: “He is just about as good a deep-lying midfielder as there is in Europe, apart from maybe Rodri.”
To a British audience, there’s a natural, if slightly lazy, line to be drawn between Zubimendi, Rodri and Sergio Busquets. Here are three Spaniards, comfortable in the same area of the pitch, all vast talents.
Yet Hunter explains Zubimendi still has room for growth: “While he’s not Busquets, he has elements. There are very few players who could replace Busquets’ genius, but Zubimendi has some of the components.
“Since Rodri came to the Premier League, he says he’s put on 10kg of muscle and Zubimendi is not as big as Rodri was. It would require a serious amount of time in the gym for him to easily impose his brilliance on the Premier League.”
Statistically, Zubimendi is solid without being extraordinary. He has won possession in the midfield third more times than any other La Liga player since the start of last season. He is a high-volume passer without being relentless, consistently solid in the tackle and can progress the ball well through dribbling or passing, but no figures stand out as you’d perhaps expect from watching him.
Yet there’s an oft misattributed line about Busquets that when you watch a football game, you don’t see him, but when you watch him, you see the whole game. That can be said of Zubimendi too.
“He is a fundamental cog in a machine,” Hunter explains. “I’ve spoken to him, I liked his attitude, his brain. He seems mature, he’s important in a very grown-up, very hard-nosed squad.
“You could look at a lot of Busquets’ stats at the height of his career and they wouldn’t have told you anything about him being a genius. In match-reading, match influence, positional and systematic play, Zubimendi is very good for his age. You can see him increasing his ability and his confidence month by month.”
This consistent progression will excite Arsenal fans, who increasingly hope he will eventually partner Declan Rice at the Emirates as links intensify. Zubimendi is also slowly adding goals to his game, with four this season already from 20 league games, including a last-minute equaliser against Alaves.
He also rarely gets injured, missing just five matches in his professional career through injury so far, although he’s currently out with a hip injury.
Arteta will see an immense, mouldable potential, a player with the requisite technical and mental capabilities who could become as valuable to Arsenal as Rodri is to Manchester City if provided the correct time, space and tutelage.
Yet Hunter is sceptical about a potential move to the Premier League: “At the moment, La Real don’t need to be a selling club because they’re relatively well off.
“I suspect Zubimendi doesn’t leave until he wants to leave. My estimate is he stays for another two-and-a-half seasons.”
Fellow Gipuzkoa son Arteta will hope that isn’t the case.
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