Real Sociedad have left Martin Zubimendi out of their promotional images for this summer’s pre-season tour of Japan, amid the midfielder’s links with a move to Arsenal.
Real Sociedad have started to promote their upcoming summer tour of Japan, setting up an official website to sell tickets for their games against V-Varen Nagasaki and Yokohama FC.
Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo obviously features heavily in the promotional material, given he’s a regular Japan international, but one interesting omission is Martin Zubimendi.
Zubimendi is one of the team’s star players and generally features front and centre in their match promotions. But with the transfer links to Arsenal, perhaps including him in the pre-season advertisements felt like too much of a gamble.
Pre-season promotions are difficult at the best of times, as you never really know which players will be available.
Even if Zubimendi doesn’t join Arsenal, he’ll have a tight turnaround to fit his summer holiday in between his likely involvement with Spain over the June international break and Real Sociedad’s pre-season matches in July.
A safer bet like Kubo could also still pick up an injury or receive interest from another club between now and pre-season. No one on the poster is totally guaranteed to play.
But Zubimendi’s departure seems particularly likely at the moment, so rather than disappointing paying supporters and redoing pre-season promo graphics in a month or two, leaving him out is the safer option.