For the best part of a week the Zubimendi transfer looked like the last loose thread of Real Madrid’s summer. A holding midfielder of genuine class, a squad that has openly missed one, and a manager in José Mourinho who had asked for more creativity in the middle in his very first conversations with the club. It was the kind of link that writes itself. On Friday morning, MARCA took a pair of scissors to it.
According to MARCA, via Madrid Universal, the reports connecting Los Blancos with the Arsenal midfielder “have no basis” whatsoever. There is no operation in motion, no negotiation quietly ticking along, nothing. Only hours after Zubimendi was back on Real Madrid’s radar with Chelsea circling, Spain’s biggest-selling sports daily has knocked the whole thing flat.
Why the Zubimendi transfer link was knocked down
The denial fits a pattern rather than breaking one. Ever since Rodri turned Madrid down and pointed himself towards Barcelona, the briefings coming out of Valdebebas have all said the same thing: faith in the group already assembled. Bernardo Silva was signed to give Mourinho an experienced brain in the double pivot, and the reading now is that Madrid are done — much as the squad was declared complete earlier this week.
Rodri’s own situation, for what it is worth, remains unresolved. In its round-up of Friday’s Spanish front pages, Bernabéu Digital notes that AS lead on how complicated the move to Barcelona has become, reporting that Manchester City have already turned down two offers from the Catalans and that the numbers have climbed to a level where the deal hangs by a thread. Whatever happens there, it is no longer a Real Madrid story.
The midfield still has not clicked
That does not mean everyone at the club is delighted with what they have. Madrid Universal, citing El Larguero, report that Real Madrid are not entirely satisfied with how the midfield is functioning, with the same lack of rhythm that dogged the unit last season still showing in pre-season. Bernardo Silva has helped. He has not solved it on his own, and nobody at Valdebebas is pretending otherwise.
The catch is arithmetic. Madrid cannot add another midfielder without first making room, and right now nobody is willing to walk. Federico Valverde flatly refused to entertain an exit. Aurélien Tchouaméni flirted briefly with Manchester United before deciding he was staying. Eduardo Camavinga, per the same reporting, has been actively pushed towards the door by the club and has dug in, determined to prove his worth to Mourinho instead.
What it means for the last fortnight of the window
So the position is simple, even if it is not especially comfortable. A move only happens if a midfielder goes or one of them suffers a serious injury — and MARCA rate both as highly unlikely with the window closing on 31 August. Everything else is noise, however loudly it is being shouted on Spanish television this week.
There is an argument that this is exactly the summer Madrid needed: sign the profiles you were sure about, refuse to panic-buy in the closing fortnight, and let a manager who has always got more out of players than out of chequebooks do his work. There is an equally good argument that a squad which finished last season trophyless has just talked itself out of fixing its most obvious weakness. Either way, the Zubimendi transfer is dead and the midfield is Mourinho’s problem to solve with what he has.
