Steven N’Zonzi is waiting for a call from Arsenal to sign him from Sevilla, despite interest from AS Roma, according to reports in Italy.

Sunday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport claims Roma had reached an agreement over personal terms with the player, worth up to €3m per season. However, N’Zonzi refused to allow the transfer to go through, as he expects a move from Arsenal.

Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t look particularly likely to come before Thursday’s Premier League deadline. Arsenal seem pretty settled for the new season in midfield, and changes are more likely to come in defence, if they come at all.

N’Zonzi has the advantage of England’s early deadline to help him though. He can wait until Friday for a move from Arsenal, and if one doesn’t come he still has another few weeks to complete his transfer to Roma. There’s no real risk in giving the situation another week to play itself out.

In all honesty, the links between Arsenal and N’Zonzi never seemed very concrete. They seemed to be based mostly on the fact Unai Emery used to manage the midfielder at Sevilla, but that sort of connection results in a transfer much less often than people think.

Hopefully this is the week when the N’Zonzi rumours finally end, but I doubt it.