Real Madrid have acknowledged a need for a tempo-setting midfielder to replace the influence left by Toni Kroos and Luka Modri\u0107. That admission has fed renewed interest in Mart\u00edn Zubimendi, yet the player himself has rejected the idea that he is the missing piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d Zubimendi told Cadena SER . \u201cMadrid has more than enough players to do well.<\/p>\n
“No way, no way.”<\/p>\n
Those departures have reshaped Madrid. Casemiro left in 2022, Kroos retired in the summer of 2024 and Modri\u0107, now 40 years old, was allowed to leave for AC Milan at the end of last season. The trio helped deliver multiple Champions League triumphs, with Kroos and Modri\u0107 finishing their careers with six personal winners\u2019 medals between them after further success following Casemiro\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n
Madrid still possess a wealth of midfield talent: Jude Bellingham, Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni, Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, Arda G\u00fcler and Dani Ceballos. The quality is evident, but questions persist about long-term balance and control when those players are asked to operate alongside one another.<\/p>\n
A central complaint among supporters has been a lack of composure in midfield that leaves the team exposed defensively and overly reliant on forward brilliance. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 scoring 37 of the team\u2019s 75 goals this season has only underlined that problem.<\/p>\n
Zubimendi\u2019s own credentials were clear before his move to Arsenal: he was a regular in the Spain squad with 180 games of La Liga experience. At Arsenal he has become the midfield anchor whose presence has coincided with the club having the best defence in the Premier League. Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has gleefully described his midfield maestro as \u201cexceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Madrid were to pursue Zubimendi now, the club would face a fee well over double what Arsenal paid last summer. Other ready-made midfield targets mentioned in discussions include Rodri and Alexis Mac Allister, with Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and Vitinha also regularly linked. Any of those options would command an astronomical figure.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the million-dollar question. Players of this profile are scarce, often tied to rival clubs, and competition for proven midfielders is intense when they do become available. Nottingham Forest\u2019s Elliot Anderson and Crystal Palace\u2019s Adam Wharton are cited as up-and-coming options, but both have significant suitors in their domestic league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mart\u00edn Zubimendi says he is not Real Madrid’s missing midfield link as the club searches for balance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[987,1163],"tags":[216,1023,939],"class_list":["post-6509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-madrid","category-transfers","tag-adam-wharton","tag-alexis-mac-allister","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}