'Relationship is very bad' – Arsenal's Martin Zubimendi at the centre of heated spat

Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi finds himself at the heart of a dispute between his former clubs Real Sociedad and Antiguoko. The Spain international left Sociedad in the summer transfer window to link up with Mikel Arteta's squad.

Interest emerged from his native country, with La Liga heavyweights Real Madrid in the mix, where his hero Xabi Alonso took over the reins from Carlo Ancelotti at the conclusion of last season. Nevertheless, Zubimendi elected to move to Arsenal, who paid £60million to bring him to the Emirates.

The 26-year-old had cemented his reputation on the world stage with impressive performances that helped Spain triumph at Euro 2024, before deciding to spend one more season in San Sebastian, having also turned down Liverpool's approach the previous year.

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Zubimendi is now a key component of Arsenal's midfield triumvirate with Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, contributing to the Gunners' position four points clear at the top of the Premier League table following nine fixtures.

However, The Sun reports that Zubimendi's former youth club Antiguoko have taken legal action. They claim to be owed £870,000 (€1m) from the transfer that brought him to north London last summer.

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

"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 joining nearby Sociedad, also located in the Basque country, aged 12. He later returned to the club for a short loan spell as a teenager, with Antiguoko also being the youth club where Gunners manager Arteta began his career.

Criticising 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."