Arsenal have stopped £50m player from signing for Liverpool, his ‘head was turned’

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool have had a blockbuster summer transfer window so far.

Indeed, the Reds have already signed Jeremie Frimpong, a deal to sign Florian Wirtz isn’t far off being done, while Milos Kerkez has been strongly linked to the Reds too.

Interestingly, Liverpool still haven’t signed a new holding midfield player, despite two years’ worth of effort on that front.

Indeed, back in 2023, Liverpool made a huge bid to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton, but he joined Chelsea instead.

Meanwhile, last year, Liverpool looked set to sign Martin Zubimendi in a £50m deal, but he decided to stay at Real Sociedad.

Now, speaking on the Sky Sports Transfer Talk Podcast, Dharmesh Sheth has been discussing what happened with Martin Zubimendi last summer, and he says Arsenal actually had a direct influence on this situation.

• READ MORE: Bayern Munich chief drops new Florian Wirtz to Liverpool verdict as ‘outstanding’ admission shared

Arsenal affected Martin Zubimendi to Liverpool deal

Sheth shared what he knows about Zubimendi as he gears up to potentially sign for Arsenal this summer.

According to the Sky Sports journalist, Arsenal directly affected Zubimendi’s decision to reject Liverpool last year, claiming that the Gunners made their interest clear around the same time as Liverpool and turned the midfielder’s head.

“This transfer goes back to last summer though, because he was very, very close to joining Liverpool. Everything was agreed with Liverpool only for him to change his mind,” Sheth said.

“Now, it’s always very, very difficult for players from the Basque region to leave those football clubs, because they are so tightly wedded to those football clubs, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad.

“The information I have is that there was, aside from the links with and the loyalty he has with Real Sociedad, there was an Arsenal implication in here as well. And I’m led to believe that Arsenal actually made their interest clear to Zubimendi last summer, and they couldn’t do the deal last summer because they had Thomas Partey and they had Jorginho.

“They knew the following summer, at least one of those two players was going to be leaving the football club. So it’s proved so far, Jorginho is gone and Thomas Partey is still in talks over a new contract. Arsenal do want him to stay. However, that’s the reason possibly that they couldn’t do that deal last summer. But I think Zubimendi’s head was turned enough.”

Martin Zubimendi compared to Ryan Gravenberch

Missing out on Zubimendi was a blow for Liverpool last summer, but, ultimately, this transfer fiasco didn’t matter too much.

Indeed, Liverpool still won the league without Zubimendi, and Ryan Gravenberch was excellent in the role Zubimendi would’ve played for Arne Slot.

The stats show that Liverpool really didn’t miss the Real Sociedad star due to how brilliant Gravenberch was last season.

Of course, that isn’t to say that Zubimendi isn’t a fantastic player who would make Arsenal a better team, but, right now, it’s hard to argue that the Spaniard would even get into the starting XI at Liverpool if he were to head to Anfield at this point.