There were some rumours in the football media last week that claimed that the Arsenal boss had made the opening move in this transfer saga by personally phoning the Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema to sound him out about a possible move to north London and the Premier League.
Whether this has any basis in truth or not I have no idea but today The Sun is reporting that the Gunners are ready to make a transfer bid of around £40 million for the world class centre forward, so you would assume that the phone call at least encouraged Arsene Wenger that he was not wasting his time by targeting his fellow Frenchman.
The theory is that Madrid might sell and Benzema might accept a transfer to Arsenal because the new manager at the Bernabeu, Rafa Benitez, has plans to make Cristiano Ronaldo the focal point of the Real Madrid attack. We might have to wait until La Liga kicks off again to find out but if so then Benzema may want to call it quits in Spain.
There would surely be plenty of other suitors though so the fact that Madrid’s keeper situation is looking dicey, with Casillas having left and them maybe having to wait until next summer to get David De Gea. How about selling them David Ospina or even better, loaning them the Colombian for a season? Would that give Arsenal the edge we need to complete this brilliant striker transfer?