Real Sociedad are facing an assault on one of the most successful midfields in the last five years of Spanish football, as the Premier League comes calling for Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi.
Merino has been expected to leave for some time, having allowed his contract to run down to its final year, ignoring Real Sociedad’s attempts to renew his deal. After Merino turned away Atletico Madrid, and Barcelona eased off their interest, the way was paved for Arsenal to move for him.
They have been in talks for some time with La Real and Merino, whom they have the green light from. However GMS say that in light of Liverpool’s move for Martin Zubimendi, Arsenal intend to speed up talks for Merino and a formal offer will be made in the coming days. His price tag is expected to be around €30m due to his contract situation.
With La Real expected to try and persuade Zubimendi to stay, Arsenal will no doubt be fearing they try to do the same with Merino if the former were to depart. Losing both would be an enormous blow to the Txuri-Urdin, who have already seen Robin Le Normand leave for Atletico too.
