Arsenal's Martin Zubimendi at the heart of tense row – 'Relationship is very bad'

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Arsenal star Martin Zubimendi is at the centre of a row between his former clubs Real Sociedad and Antiguoko. The midfielder departed Sociedad during the summer transfer window to join Mikel Arteta's side.

There was interest from his homeland , courtesy of La Liga giants Real Madrid , where his idol, Xabi Alonso, assumed the managerial role from Carlo Ancelotti at the end of last season. However, Zubimendi chose to join Arsenal , who stumped up £60million to secure his signature.

The 26-year-old had established himself on the international stage with some outstanding displays to help Spain win Euro 2024, before opting to remain in San Sebastian for an additional campaign, despite Liverpool's advances last year too.

Zubimendi now forms part of an Arsenal midfield alongside Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, which has helped the Gunners sit four points clear at the Premier League summit after nine matches.

But The Sun report that Zubimendi’s youth club Antiguoko have gone to court. It is claimed that they are owed £870,000 (€1m) in the deal that took him to north London last summer.

“Currently, the relationship with Real Sociedad is very bad on their part," Roberto Montiel, technical Director of Antiguoko, said.

“We had an agreement with Real Sociedad until 2020. Since then, we have an agreement with Athletic Bilbao.

“When Zubi signed for Real Sociedad, it was agreed that, in the event of a transfer, we would receive 5 per cent up to one million euros in return. With this behavior, we decided not to renew the agreement with them because we felt mistreated by them.”

Zubimendi spent five years at Antiguoko before moving to nearby Sociedad, which is also in the Basque country, at the age of 12. He returned to the club for a brief spell on loan as a teenager with Antiguoko also the youth club where Gunners head coach Arteta started.

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Hitting out at Sociedad, Montiel added: “They are obsessed with crushing us at all levels. They want us to be more and more inferior. The Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa has put in place a law that is subject to Real Sociedad of ‘territoriality’.

“This means that a boy or girl from a town bordering 5 kilometers from San Sebastián up to under-14 category cannot sign for Antiguoko. In other words, any boy or girl within the entire periphery of San Sebastián and its surroundings cannot sign with us, even though the kids’ parents wanted them to join us.

“This would be translated as explaining that a child from a neighbourhood on the outskirts of London cannot sign for any club in London up to under-14 category. Madness! Real Sociedad collected the transfer fee from the sale of Martín Zubimendi from Arsenal and has not paid us the five per cent that corresponds to us according to the agreement.

“Real Sociedad has not said anything, and we have made the request in court. And we will have an administrative dispute to reach an agreement. They will maintain their position of not paying us. That money is very important to us because we invest it in our academy.

“Another example of the poor relationship with Real Sociedad is last season. We were holding an official event to reward Martín for all the sporting achievements he has achieved, and Real Sociedad did not give him authorisation to collect the award. As a result of that decision, we had to cancel the event.

“We have already agreed with Martín that we will hold the event at the end of this season. Furthermore, I don’t think a former Antiguoko player, Mikel Arteta , will pose any problem.”

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