At last! A transfer story that both makes sense and is plausible…

Arsenal are looking to sign Monaco’s Geoffrey Kondogbia this summer, according to Metro (who picked the story up from Spanish press).

Kondogbia, a long term target of the club, was probably Monaco’s stand-out performer when they knocked us out of the Champion’s League only a few weeks ago, and according the the story Wenger has put him high up on the list of summer targets.

The report suggests a stumbling block could be the 22-year-old’s demand for first team football, particularly with Euro 2016 on the horizon, but given Flamini’s decline and Arteta’s transition to Rosicky-like squad status, there shouldn’t be too many concerns there.

When Kondogbia moved from Sevilla to Monaco, that ended the third party ownership that precluded him signing for Arsenal, but the interest at the time was real, as subtly confirmed by Wenger’s comments at the time.

“I don’t really want to talk about Kondogbia too much because everyone’s after him at the moment.

“When you ask ‘Are you also interested?’ what do you expect me to say?”

The Daily Star suggests there may be competition from Real Madrid, but given the stockpile of defensive midfielders at the Bernabeu, that would take quite a shift in their modus operandi.

The original article from Spain quotes a figure of €25m, which is possible given Monaco’s financial uncertainty, and to my mind would be a good bit of business. It certainly would be a very popular piece of business among Arsenal fans, with even Perry Groves outlining him as a perfect signing back in November.

Certainly his size, athleticism and class on the ball would tick a lot of boxes.

I know we’ve all seen play against us, but it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves what he was capable of even as a 20 year old in La Liga.