New York State

Martin Zubimendi is considering rejecting Arsenal in favour of a move to Real Madrid as Xabi Alonso plans a ‘final offensive’ for his signature, according to reports in Spain.

Arsenal were believed to be leading the race to sign Zubimendi, the Real Sociedad midfielder who helped Spain win Euro 2024 last summer.

Liverpool came close to bringing Zubimendi to Anfield 12 months ago but he decided to reject the Reds and spend another season at boyhood club Sociedad.

Zubimendi has been at Real Sociedad since the age of 12 and has made more than 200 first-team appearances over the past six seasons.

Mikel Arteta is keen to welcome Zubimendi to the Emirates Stadium to bolster his midfield options following the departure of Jorginho and possible exit of Thomas Partey.

Jorginho has joined Brazilian side Flamengo after coming to the end of his contract at Arsenal, while Partey will be a free agent in a matter of weeks.

Arsenal began working on a deal for Zubimendi earlier in the year and are confident of making the Spaniard, who has a £51m release clause, one of their marquee summer signings.

But Real Madrid have been repeatedly linked with a rival bid and AS say the La Liga giants are now planning a ‘final offensive’ to win the transfer race.

Xabi Alonso wants to sign a new central midfielder after replacing Carlo Ancelotti in the Bernabeu hot-seat and has identified Zubimendi as his No. 1 target.

It is claimed Madrid’s chances of hijacking Arsenal’s deal has been boosted by the fact the player would ideally like to stay in Spain.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBECWzXMF2_/?hl=en&img_index=1

Spanish outlet AS say Zubimendi is also ‘attracted’ to the idea of playing for Real Madrid and under Alonso, who he worked with at Real Sociedad B.

If Zubimendi indicates he will turn down Arsenal in favour of a move to Real Madrid, the European giants will try to negotiate a lower deal than his £51m buy-out clause.

They are not, however, willing to match Arsenal’s contract offer, which is believed to be worth around £8m-a-year.

Zubimendi cools Arsenal transfer talk

Zubimendi admitted his future remained open in an interview last week and heaped praise on new Real Madrid boss Alonso, describing him as his ‘idol’.

‘Of course there are options, but it’s true that it looks like it’s going to be a different, long summer, and I don’t know how it’s going to end,’ he told Radio Nacional from the Spain national team’s camp.

‘Right now, thinking about it isn’t my priority. I’m here with the national team, which is already quite demanding, and if I have to say something, then I will.’

On the influence of Alonso on his career, Zubimendi added: ‘I’ve always said that he was my idol and that for me it was a stroke of luck that he was able to coach me in the reserve team in a very important year.

‘[But] I don’t like to talk about those hypotheses, I like to talk about the present.

‘I think it would be disrespectful to answer a question [about a Madrid move] while I’m in the national team, and facing such an important competition.’

Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay recently gave Real Madrid fresh hope of beating Arsenal to a transfer deal for Zubimendi.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has added Stormers No 8 Evan Roos to his squad for the matches against the Barbarians and the Incoming Series.

The office of the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has published its annual review of local municipalities, including the best-run one.

South Africa's road running darling Gerda Steyn won her fourth Comrades Marathon title on Sunday. Here's how she did it ...

US President Donald Trump threatened his former advisor Elon Musk with "serious consequences". Here's why ...

Marvel star Tom Hiddleston and actress Zawe Ashton have joyfully announced they are expecting their second child.

South Africa's Tete Dijana has claimed his third 'down run' victory in the Comrades Marathon. Here's how the action unfolded ...

The latest news coming from camp Kaizer Chiefs has them linked with a Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates stars!

A MAN who moved out of his home to live on a narrowboat has saved a fortune after growing tired of suburban life.

Joel Sanders, 57, ditched his one-bedroom flat in Watford, Hertfordshire, after getting the bug during a stint on water.

SWNS

Joel Sanders has lived on water for the past 15 years[/caption]

SWNS

Joel moved out of his flat in Watford and hasn’t looked back since[/caption]

SWNS

The comedian was offered a gig on a cruise ship and wanted to replicate that feeling when he got back to the UK.

After a brief chat with boat owners along the canal in Hemel Hempstead, Joel put his money where his mouth is.

“Within a week I had bought a boat, travelled across London in it and was in that same marina,” he said.

“I am very intolerant to noise and in a flat I felt that my private space was invaded by other people’s noises.

“You could always hear your neighbours.

“A boat has all the benefits of a detached home and if you don’t like the place where you are because it is too loud then you move.

“I live a simple nomadic existence. You get a sense of independence and freedom on a boat which is very hard to get on the land.”

After spending a year in the Hemel Hempstead marina, Joel upgraded to a bigger boat- a 1996 Colecraft- for around £60,000 and began moving across the country.

Since the switch, he has docked in Nottingham, Birmingham, London, Oxford, Bristol, Reading, and Gloucester.

However, life on a boat is not all positive, with Joel adding that it is extremely hard work managing your own limited water, gas, and electricity supply.

Joel forks out around £1,600 annually on his boat licence, is set back £800 on heating and spends tens of thousands of pounds on upgrades and maintenance.

The boat owner has also experienced tragedy since he took up his marine residence.

Recently, Joel found a dead body floating in the canal in Nottingham.

Despite its flaws, he says he doesn’t regret a thing.

He continued: “With boating the good days are great but the bad days are very bad. It is a life of extremes.

“Boating is a fairly intensive part time job. It makes you feel more alive somehow when you have to manage those things that you once took for granted.

“It really toughened me up. I have learned a huge amount.

“Most of my friends when I bought it said I was mad, and I wouldn’t last three months. The things it gave me were so thrilling to me that I ploughed through the difficulties.

“I will take the physical challenges for as long as my health will allow me to for the benefits.”

Joel added that the main trick is to find the right boat, saying that if you buy a bad one with lots of problems then you would “have a better quality of life on a park bench.”

Joel said: “With the housing crisis a lot of people are deciding to buy boats, but it is not a lifestyle that is right for people who just can’t afford to live on the land.

“You need to want the lifestyle.”

LYING on the track in a tangled mess, Tai Woffinden admits the last thing he remembers is people crying at the extent of his injuries.

The five-times world champion blacked out minutes after the horror crash where he sustained over 15 BROKEN BONES following a high-speed pile-up in Krosno, Poland in late March. 

Taylor Lanning

The Speedway icon broke 15 bones in a horror crash[/caption]

Great Britain ace Woffy, 34, was given an emergency helicopter airlift to hospital as fears grew over his survival because of chest injuries and a huge loss of blood.

He was then put in a medically induced coma after three lengthy major operations. 

But two months after fighting for his life, Woffinden is now walking and eight weeks ahead in his gruelling recovery plan in rehab.

In his first interview since the incident, he reveals how he heard the femur bone in his leg snap on impact and that the first people on the scene were in tears on seeing his condition because his arms were “pointing in the wrong direction”. 

He admitted: “I remember everything. In the race that I crashed I made a pretty decent start, so I blipped the throttle a little bit coming into the corner.

“The junior rider off gate one drove over the kerb, ran into the guy that was off gate two, who then collected me.

“As I got collected, as you normally do, you drop it on the side and slide towards the fence. And then while sliding across the track, my bike hit the APD (airfence) first, which lifted it up probably about a metre.

“And the moment I saw that lift, I just went, ‘oh f***’. And then I hit the fence, I heard my femur snap.

“It’s almost like if you’re underwater and you snap a tree branch.

“I then was laid on the track. I remember looking up and seeing everybody around me. The team manager’s face looked like he had seen a ghost.

“One person was crying looking at my body. My arms were pointing all in the wrong direction. My left shoulder was dislocated, pointing upwards.

“My right humerus was shattered at the bottom. My elbow was dislocated and my elbow was broken.

“I actually couldn’t see my hands when I was laying on the track because they were both pointing up.

“So I’m sat there saying, ‘give me some meds’. I was saying ‘bol, bol, bol’ which means pain in Polish just to make sure they knew what I was talking about.

“I don’t know if I passed out from the amount of Fentanyl they’d given me or the amount of blood that I’d lost.”

Woffinden, Britain’s greatest-ever rider, had a double compound right femur fracture, broken back, right humerus compound fracture, dislocated and smashed right elbow, 12 broken ribs,punctured lung, left broken shoulder blade and dislocated left shoulder.

He added: “I remember the blades of the helicopter, the noise of it starting to take off. And then the next thing, I’m in a coma. 

“There were so many injuries, I probably wouldn’t have been able to be awake and deal with the injuries. One of the operations was 12 hours long and I had multiple blood transfusions.

“I thought a coma would have been a pleasant sleep. It was quite the opposite. It was the worst thing I’d ever experienced. It was quite scary at times. I was on sedatives and painkillers and antibiotics.

“I was hallucinating, I was dreaming and having nightmares. Normally you have a nightmare and you wake up. Well, I couldn’t wake up.

“I dealt with some wild s***. I woke up from the coma, and everything that I’d dreamt, I believed it was real. And my wife Faye was like, ‘mate, that didn’t happen’. I was getting angry with Faye because she wasn’t believing me.”

Woffinden refused to be drawn on what the future holds in speedway, his only focus is on full recovery from the huge toll of injuries. 

He added: “There’s so many variables. We need to give it that extra month to heal and then have the CT scan so we can really see what’s going on from all different angles.

“I might need another operation on my humerus in my arm because it was shattered in 27 places. If the metalwork hasn’t helped it knit together, I’ll need another op. 

“I’ve done everything I possibly can. I’ve done four to five hours a day in rehab since I left the hospital. My progress is on another level.

“It’s ridiculous. Where I’m at given the injuries is f*****g phenomenal.

“I would like to ride my bike again, whether that’s competitive or not or just practice, who knows?

“But I just make micro personal goals to keep reaching. Only my recovery comes first.”