Liverpool have become the latest club to be rejected by Martin Zubimendi after the midfielder decided to stay at Real Sociedad.
The Reds had been hoping to make Zubimendi the first signing of the Arne Slot era, but Sociedad launched a charm offensive to try and persuade him to stay and the 25-year-old has opted to remain with his boyhood club.
Zubimendi joined Sociedad's academy at the age of 12 and the club were desperate to keep him, having already lost one of their top stars after selling defender Robin Le Normand to Atletico Madrid.
Midfielder Mikel Merino is also expected to join Arsenal and Zubimendi has previously turned down moves to Arsenal and Bayern Munich in order to stay at Sociedad. "They are just rumours, I am happy at Real Sociedad, it is like my home," Zubimendi told Marca back in April.
"I cannot say that I will play my entire career at Real Sociedad, perhaps the club does not want me to continue in the future. And I am not worried about those rumours. Our goal is to qualify for Europe next season.
"It would be the first time in the history of Real Sociedad that we have achieved this for five consecutive seasons. It would be great for us." Sociedad are now set to offer Zubimendi a new contract.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are not expected to turn their attention to other midfield targets and Slot is not concerned about the fact they are the only Premier League club not to have made any new signings so far this summer.
"I think as a club like we are, we are always looking if we can strengthen the squad. But it’s not so easy to strengthen the squad if you see both games today. I’ve said many times before that I’ve inherited a really strong team," he said.
"If we can and if we think it’s possible, we will strengthen the squad. But only if we think we can and if it’s possible. [It's] not only an important week, an important year to come. We have to improve day by day.
"I think we saw today in both games a lot of good things but I can make a big list also of things we have to improve, which is completely normal. Some of them with the certain new ideas we have, have only been [working] with this for a week.
"They have to adjust to that, they have to adjust to each other maybe with these some new ideas. So it’s normal that we are far from perfect, but even being far from perfect we can score four, so that’s a good start."