Manchester City have reportedly found Rodri's replacement in one of LaLiga's best midfielders.
The gears at the city headquarters whir as the flashing lights keep everyone in the bunker awake, as does the screaming. You hear clatter of shoes on the hard floor as they run around, unrolling huge cards onto even bigger tables and pinning them down with yesterday's dirty cups of cold tea. The war room at Etihad Stadium is located on DEFCON 1; Manchester City need to find room to breathe quickly, and recent developments indicate they may have done just that.
A huge budget that remained out of reach until January was a question whispered as Christmas approached: will City do anything in January? Will they be forced to spend a lot of money to get themselves out of this hole? It helps that, would you believe, they've had record revenues (!) in the past year, which means gold coins have been found somewhere and the war chest is chock full.
Zubimendi marked as Rodri replacement
Their action plan, if reports are to be believed, has been given the green light, as a large number of fingers on the maps would point in the same direction: Northern Spain.
Manchester City are reportedly looking at Real Sociedad midfielder Martín Zubimendi as an emergency replacement for the injured Rodri, the on-field general they have missed during their 1-win-in-10 run.
At first glance, the 25-year-old Real Sociedad midfielder moves differently from the grace of the migrating giraffe that is Rodri, with his shirt neatly tucked in as he walks and wanders confidently. Instead, Zubimendi is a fluttering, frolicking kingfisher: just as graceful but in a different way. The second side of the same coin; a darker blue than the City shade, but the same essence.
What are Zubimendi's statistics?
Zubimendi's stats might not even make you rub your eyes: FBref doesn't have him breaking the 70th percentile in any of the snap passing stats. Or goals. Or assists.
But what a deeper dive into the player on the field reveals is one thing: everywhereness. And not in the Orwellian sense of Big Brother, not that scary feeling, but a sense of talent: knowing where and when to show up, when to move, when to hold on, when to conjure your way out of a dark place .
He has top numbers in progressive passes, shots on goal, his medium passes and blocked passes. He is neither a goalscorer nor a defensive giant: he is everything, and at least as graceful as Rodri in doing it.
Some may remember Zubimendi replacing Rodri in the European Championship final against England, coming on at half-time after the City player was injured. Some of you might not, and that's because he filled in so perfectly that it seemed like Spain didn't even need their first choice. Of course they would have liked to, but Martín did just as well and showed the continent that LaLiga fans enjoyed all season: he is a damn good footballer.
And sometimes in the game it's that simple.