A day after it looked as if the Karim Benzema-to-Arsenal rumours were about to come waddling back into our lives, the Real Madrid striker signs a new four-year deal.

Benzema has signed a new four-year deal with Real Madrid taking him up until 2021 and meaning that he potentially snubbed moving to Arsenal instead.

According to the Mirror, the France international’s new contract contains a €1bn – £900m – release clause.

“As a forward, when you’re at a club and you’re a first-team regular, you don’t need to look elsewhere,” the player said, reports the Mirror.

“Especially when you’re at a club like Real Madrid.”

The news comes just after it was rumoured by Don Balon that the La Liga giants were willing to sell to Arsenal for £44m, since the Gunners will most likely be looking for an Alexis Sanchez replacement soon. However, the report did also point out that Los Blancos could tie the 29-year-old down to a new deal in order to get more money for him when they do sell.

Benzema signed for Real from Lyon for £30m – a healthy sum back in 2009.

He’s since gone on to score 182 goals in 371 appearances across all competitions and assist 104. However, over the past couple of seasons, the striker seems to have fallen out of favour and only made 23 La Liga starts last term.

Arsenal have been linked with Benzema consistently since Robin van Persie left in 2012 but his age, new release clause and the addition of Alexandre Lacazette make signing him now seem rather unlikely.