The cogs are whirring at City HQ as the flashing lights keep everyone awake inside the bunker, as does the shouting. Scuttling shoes can be heard clacking on the hard floor as they rush around, unfurling huge maps onto even bigger tables and pinning them down with yesterday’s dirty cups of cold tea. The war room in the Etihad Stadium is at DEFCON 1; Manchester City need to find space to breathe, fast, and recent developments hint that they might have done just that.

A huge budget frozen out of reach until January has been a question mentioned in whispers as Christmas rolled into the field of view: will City make a move in January? Will they be forced to spend big to dig themselves out of this hole? It helps that they, would you believe, posted record income (!) for the past year, meaning gold coins have been found somewhere and the war chest is brimming.

Zubimendi highlighted as Rodri replacement

Their plan of action, if reports are to be believed, has been given the green light as a multitude of fingers are said to be pointing in the same direction on the maps: northern Spain.

Manchester City are reportedly looking at Real Sociedad midfielder Martín Zubimendi as an emergency replacement for the injured Rodri, the general on the field that they have been missing as they have gone on their 1-win-in-10 run.

At first glance, 25-year-old Real Sociedad midfielder moves differently to the gracefulness of the migrating giraffe that Rodri is, shirt smartly tucked in as he confidently strides and roams. Instead Zubimendi is a flitting, darting kingfisher: just as graceful but in a different way. The second side to the same coin; a darker blue to the City shade, but the same essence.

What are Zubimendi’s stats?

Zubimendi’s stats might not even cause you to rub your eyes: FBref don’t have him piercing the 70th percentile in any short passing stats. Or goals. Or assists.

But what a deeper dive into the player on the pitch shows is one thing: everywhereness. And not in the Orwellian sense of Big Brother, not that scary feeling, but one of talent: the knowing where-and-when to pop up, when to move, when to hold, when to magic your way out of somewhere dark.

He has top-tier numbers in progressive passes, shots on target, his medium passes, and passes blocked. He’s neither a goalscorer nor a defensive giant: he’s everything, and at least as graceful as Rodri in doing it.

Some may remember that Zubimendi substituted Rodri in the Euros final against England, coming on at half-time after the City player got injured. Some of you may not, and that’s because he filled in so perfectly it was like, ahem, Spain didn’t even need their first choice lynchpin. Of course they would have liked to, but Martín did just as good of a job and showed to the continent what LaLiga fans had been enjoying all season: he’s a damn good footballer.

And sometimes in the game it’s as simple as that.