Here was me getting all hot under the collar over Gyokeres and Sesko yesterday, whilst all along Arsenal were making their moves for a certain Martin Zubimendi behind closed doors.

I should start talking about left backs. Maybe that’ll be enough reverse-jinx for us to do a striker deal in the next 48 hours…

The reality is that it sounds like this Zubimendi deal has been a while in the making and the Fabrizio Romano and Sami Mokbel ‘scoops’ that emerged yesterday (heck, even Sky Sports started reporting it and they’re the last to usually know!) were merely just confirmation of a pretty open secret that has been around for a few months now, certainly from January, for sure.

And I’m reminded of how the Declan Rice situation played out before we signed him. We were in for Caicedo in the January transfer window, Brighton held firm on what feels like a little too much of an over price given that they paid basically what we paid for Declan Rice, then in that January I think it was Ornstein who was reporting that we were interested in signing Rice and had already been speaking to the representatives of the player. The noises we were hearing at the time were that the player was keen to join the club and whilst at the time I remember thinking “yeah right,  there’s no way we get Declan Rice” here we are a couple of year’s down the line, with him as one of our most valuable players.

The Zubimendi stuff does have one clear distinction though; Arsenal are doing this job early. For the Rice transfer we were against a West Ham team determined to hold out for an extremely high price, but also for a player who had – crucially for this story at the moment – no release clause. West Ham set the price and they could hold out for it. Even if there was a release clause, the club might have tried to negotiate it down anyway and that’s the reason we spent a good six week’s of that summer getting a little worried as we went toe-to-toe with City for West Ham’s captain.

Of course as we know it now, Arsenal had been working this deal hard, speaking to the player and making it very clear just how he would fit into the system, how he would evolve as a player and probably most importantly how he would be a regular starter. At City he had Rodri in his way or other players in the advanced positions which we now know is where we think Declan operates the best in.

That release clause is the reason Arsenal can – and are – moving quickly. We know the price, it’s not extortionate for a guy who has been described as one of the best midfielders in the Spanish national team, the deal is with a club we have done business with before (They had KT off us on loan last season, so relations are sure to be good, I would have thought) and I’m sure it’ll be announced as soon as that June window opens.

I do think back to last summer though. Real Sociedad had accepted a bid from Liverpool for him and I’ll be honest, I was very worried to see how he would line up for them in the number six position. It’s an area that they needed to solve and he would be what looked like a perfect fit. I had just assumed that the deal would be done, because why would Liverpool bid for a player, if he hadn’t already green-lighted the transfer? Whatever the reason, he decided to reject and stay at Sociedad and I’m not in the kind of mood to be trying to banter off Liverpool by saying that Arsenal is a better place to play your football, but I do wonder what made the difference between last summer and now.

Is it just good timing on our part? The player may have felt that he needed to do one more season at the club, to show his loyalty, which he’s now done and is ready for a ‘big move’.

Is it the San Sebastian connection with Arteta? Maybe. Arteta will know all about the culture of the club, he will have spoken to him as a fellow Basque from the region who has travelled abroad to ply his trade, plus he’ll have been meticulous in his explanation of just how he see’s Zubi fitting in to the team. If we know anything about Mikel, it’s that he’ll know EXACTLY how he wants to deploy Martin.

Is it the Sociedad former player connection? I suppose it can’t hurt. He’s recently played with Merino and KT in the Sociedad team, plus if you go back a few more years, he’ll have been coming through as Odegaard was on loan there for a season. Those players will be able to speak to him about the transition from Sociedad to The Arsenal, the Premier League, plus it will be familiar faces to help him bed in as he adjusts to a new life and a new league.

Regardless of the reason’s and motives, this is a great deal for Arsenal and we have to be happy that the club are moving quickly, which bodes well for the rest of the business we need to do this summer. If this deal can be concluded as soon as possible, Zubimendi goes on holiday as an Arsenal player (if he’s not on holiday already), he comes back to start pre season with his teammates, gets a full pre season to learn the style and approach of Arteta, is in the best possible position to start making an impact for next season.

He also ticks a lot of boxes for us. We should probably wait until the official announcement is concerned, but with question marks over what’s happening with Partey, with Jorginho on his way out, there’s a clear gap there that Arsenal need to fill and I can say anything more positively than the fact that the club has gone out, found the solution (we hope) and has acted swiftly.

Let’s hope this is a positive sign for the summer.

Catch you all tomorrow.