{"id":67253,"date":"2026-08-07T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/67253\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:30:08","slug":"chelsea-xabi-alonso-tells-blueco-he-wants-e70m-midfielder-he-asked-real-madrid-to-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/67253\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea: Xabi Alonso tells BlueCo he wants \u20ac70m midfielder he asked Real Madrid to sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea<\/a> manager Xabi Alonso has told the club\u2019s owners, BlueCo, to sign Martin Zubimendi from Arsenal in the summer transfer window, having tried to get him at Real Madrid, according to a journalist.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi<\/a> joined Arsenal from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2025.<\/p>\n

Arsenal<\/a> paid \u00a360million (\u20ac70.4m) to Sociedad for the Spain international midfielder to get a favourable structural deal, despite his release clause being \u20ac60m (\u00a351.1m).<\/p>\n

Before the north London club sealed the deal for Zubimendi, Alonso<\/a> wanted Madrid to sign him.<\/p>\n

Alonso was appointed the Real Madrid<\/a> manager at the end of the 2024\/25 campaign.<\/p>\n

Xabi Alonso wanted Martin Zubimendi at Real Madrid<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0AS<\/a>, the former Madrid midfielder \u2018informed\u2019 the\u00a0Spanish club\u2019s\u00a0hierarchy that Zubimendi \u2018could be the compass needle\u2019 and replace Toni Kroos in midfield.<\/p>\n

READ: Fabrizio Romano says \u2018Chelsea agree deal\u2019 for \u20ac21m star \u2013 \u2018here we go\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Arsenal, who went on to win the Premier League title last season, had already made a move for Zubimendi at that stage, but the midfielder was still holding out for Madrid.<\/p>\n

AS\u00a0added: \u2018Even so, the fact that the Basque coach\u2019s representatives were in contact with Zubimendi\u2019s opened a door, given that the\u00a0Spanish international waited\u00a0a few days, convinced that if there was a possibility of signing for Real Madrid with Xabi at the helm, it was an unmissable opportunity for his career.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Real Madrid-leaning publication further stated: \u2018Real Madrid hesitated, and by the time they made a move to explore the possibility of a transfer, it was too late.<\/p>\n

\u2018They were never convinced, and Arsenal officially announced his signing two weeks later than they would have liked.\u2019<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Transfer rumour ranking: Arsenal eye Everton man after Vini snub as Real Madrid face Rodri hijack<\/a><\/p>\n

Zubimendi played a key role in Arsenal winning the Premier League title and reaching the final of the Champions League last season.<\/p>\n

Xabi Alonso wants Martin Zubimendi at Chelsea<\/p>\n

However, with Bruno Guimaraes now set to join Arsenal from Newcastle United<\/a>, it has emerged that Chelsea<\/a> could try to sign Zubimendi before the summer transfer window closes.<\/p>\n

Chelsea FC journalist Simon Phillips wrote on his Substack<\/a>, he wrote:\u00a0\u201cI was told by a source that Xabi Alonso is a big fan of Martin Zubimendi and has communicated to Chelsea that he\u2019s a player he likes and is of interest to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m NOT saying Chelsea are going for Zubimendi, but he is a player who\u2019s been mentioned by Alonso.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Every Premier League transfer confirmed in the summer of 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has told the club\u2019s owners, BlueCo, to sign Martin Zubimendi from Arsenal in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[366,942,1707,2758,82,2920,273,100,83,1743,1248],"class_list":["post-67253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-arsenal","tag-chelsea","tag-front-page","tag-home-page","tag-madrid","tag-martin-zubimendi","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-real-madrid","tag-soccer","tag-xabi-alonso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}