Aston Villa and Liverpool are said to be keen on Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi, so they may have seen the struggle the midfielder had at the weekend.
He was outclassed by lesser-known players in the 2-1 derby defeat to Athletic Club on Saturday.
That’s according to Mundo Deportivo’s Bizkaia edition, who cover the player today and how Athletic dup Íñigo Ruiz de Galarreta and Mikel Vesga ‘wiped the floor’ with him on Saturday.
The newspaper explains how the ‘continental aristocracy’, with Aston Villa, Liverpool and Barcelona named specifically, all seem interested in signing Zubimendi and teammate Mikel Merino at some point.
They are considered the ‘jewels’ at Real Sociedad at this moment in time and have earned that status with a series of impressive performances for La Real so far.
Both are talented players, to say the least, but Mundo say there were unable to show that in the weekend defeat to Athletic.
Instead, they found themselves outclassed by Ruiz de Galarreta and Mikel Vesga, who ‘wiped the floor’ with them and set the stage for their side’s win.
Zubimendi and his teammate ‘barely showed their paws’ in the dual other than to make the occasional mistake, outclassed by a duo who few outside of Spain will have heard of.
That should serve as food for thought for Aston Villa and Liverpool, unfortunately the lesser known duo are both 30-years-of-age.