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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is refusing to give up on his chase to land Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema and could finalise a move as early as today. The striker is subject of a £35m bid and will sign a four-year contract worth £120k-a-week with the North London club, report Express.
Meanwhile The Guardian are also reporting of Arsene Wenger's continuing interest in Karim Benzema and that he's willing to play the waiting game in order to land his man.
Moving to Arsenal would help Benzema
Benzema is one of Arsene Wenger's top targets and would represent the kind of signing that would take Arsenal to the very summit of the Premier League. The club have yearned for an out-and-out striker ever since the departure of Robin van Persie to Manchester United.
It seems like Benzema has lost his place in the Real Madrid starting eleven after manager Rafael Benitez admitted to wanting to use both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale as his centre-forwards. The Spaniard chose a front-two of Jese Rodriguez and Bale in their last outing against Tottenham in the Audi Cup with the Welshman later making known his admiration and wish for that centre-forward position.
If Benzema does sign for Arsenal, it would be the third successive big money signing the North London club have made. It all started with signing Benzema's friend and former teammate Mesut Ozil, followed by the astute signing of Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona last season.
The former-Lyon striker scored 15 goals and contributed 10 assists last season in only 29 appearances for the Galacticos. He would be a massive improvement over any of the existing Arsenal strikers and would represent the kind of ambition that seems to now be flowing at the Emirates.
Arsenal are looking up
With the signing of Benzema, Arsenal would only be one player short of comfortably challenging for domestic and European titles. The Gunners are rumoured to still be on the lookout for another defensive midfielder to give Francis Coquelin some competition. Earlier this summer, it looked like youth-prospect Issac Hayden would provide said competition but the England U-21 international is off to Hull City in a season-long loan deal.
Arsenal have known to have monitored and sent scouts to watch and report on Sporting Lisbon's William Carvalho, Bayer Leverkusen's Lars Bender and Sevilla midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak but any move for any of them might happen towards the end of the transfer window.
If the deal for Benzema falls through, there's been talk of Arsenal wanting to sign Robert Lewandowski or Marco Reus but a move for either would be extremely difficult.
Meanwhile, Benzema has uploaded a rather cryptic Instagram post with nothing but three words that read. "I can't wait..." Have a look:
