Real Madrid's Regret Over Rodri and Zubimendi's Future

Real Madrid thought they could live without a midfielder like Rodri. Inter Milan showed them, brutally, that they were wrong.

José Mourinho’s side went into that game with their usual weapons: speed, space and stars. Vinícius, Mbappé, Bellingham – a front line built to kill in transition. But between defence and attack, there was a void. No conductor. No metronome. No Rodri.

Sport highlighted the problem bluntly: Madrid cannot truly dominate games. They chase them, springing forward at pace, but struggle to dictate where and how the match is played. The ball keeps coming back. Opponents press, win it, and turn Madrid’s own ambition against them.

Against Inter, the pattern was painfully clear. Madrid pushed, lost control, and relied on Thibaut Courtois to prevent the night from turning into a lesson. The goalkeeper bailed them out. The structure did not.

This is the bill coming due for a choice made months ago. When the chance existed to go all in for Rodri, Madrid looked elsewhere. They preferred a more attacking profile in Bernardo Silva, a player Barcelona ultimately passed on. The champions of Europe chose sparkle over structure.

Mourinho continues to lean on Aurélien Tchouaméni, Fede Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga to start moves and manage tempo. All three are elite. All three bring power, running and personality. None of them, though, offers the calm, positional genius and passing range that Rodri gives Barcelona.

So Madrid improvise. They toy with the idea of Arda Güler dropping deeper, or even Trent Alexander-Arnold stepping inside as a hybrid playmaker. Clever tweaks, interesting on paper, but makeshift. None of those solutions truly fixes the hole in the centre of the pitch.

The club knows it. That is why eyes are already on the winter transfer window, long before it opens. This is not a market they usually treat as decisive. This time, it might have to be.

One name has moved back to the front of the list: Martín Zubimendi.

Madrid chased the Arsenal midfielder in the summer. Now, circumstances in England may be turning in their favour.

At Arsenal, the Spaniard’s status has quietly shrunk. He has started all five of the Gunners’ official matches this season on the bench. For a player signed for 70 million euros and tied down until 2030, that is a stark shift.

The clearest message came on the biggest stage. In the Champions League clash against Napoli at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Zubimendi watched almost the entire game from the touchline and was given just eight minutes. A symbolic cameo, nothing more.

This is not a sudden dip. His struggle for minutes dates back to the end of last season. In the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, he sat out the full 90 minutes and only entered in extra time. When the game plan was drawn up, he was not at the heart of it.

Yet whenever Mikel Arteta has called on him, Zubimendi has delivered. That is the tension at the core of his situation. Performances that justify trust; selections that suggest the opposite. Arteta keeps turning to other options in his position, and over time that wears down even the most patient professional – especially one who left Real Sociedad to become a central figure, not a rotation piece.

Madrid, watching closely, see opportunity rather than risk.

Their admiration for Zubimendi is not new. His work with Spain only sharpened the interest. When Rodri suffered a serious injury, it was Zubimendi who stepped into the void and ran the national team’s midfield. He did not just fill in; he controlled games.

He showed it when the stakes were highest. The second half of the Euro 2024 final, extra time in the 2026 World Cup final – in those moments, under that pressure, he held his nerve and his position. That kind of temperament is exactly what Madrid’s current midfield lacks.

From a financial standpoint, the deal is demanding but not prohibitive. Arsenal paid 70 million euros to bring him in last season, and his market value sits in a similar range. That fee would allow the London club to recover their investment. For Madrid, in the context of recent spending and their need for a long-term anchor, it is a number they would not classify as excessive.

They will not have a free run at him. Chelsea are in the picture, driven by Xabi Alonso’s admiration. Alonso pushed for Zubimendi during his time as a candidate for the Real Madrid job, only for Florentino Pérez to look elsewhere. Now, with Alonso at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea rebuilding their core, the Basque midfielder has another powerful suitor.

So Madrid face a familiar crossroads. They passed on Rodri and built a team around transition and talent rather than control. Inter, and others, have exposed the cost of that decision. The question now is whether they are willing to pay a premium, in January, to avoid watching the same story unfold again.

Because if they hesitate once more, Zubimendi may walk into someone else’s midfield and give another club exactly what Madrid are missing.