by Lewis Ambrose

According to Eurosport France Arsenal are interested in a move for Napoli left-back Faouzi Ghoulam and could turn their attention to him once a deal to bring Petr Čech to the club is completed.

But this seems incredibly unlikely.

Arsenal have two very good left-backs already. So good, in fact, that they have swapped who is first choice a number of times over previous seasons. Our very own Helen Trantum has written about Arsenal’s need for any reinforcements at the back being overstated.

As of now the spot in the team belongs to Nacho Monreal, who had a fantastic 2014/15 campaign to see off Kieran Gibbs.

The report from Eurosport France says that Arsenal would look to bid around £10M for Ghoulam, but the defender has been deemed ‘non-transferable’ by Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.

The Algerian international played for France at youth level but has since represented the African side on 19 occasions.

Others interested

The report also says that Real Madrid are interested in the defender, which makes more sense considering the new Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez was at Napoli last year and is looking at getting rid of Fabio Coentrao.

Ghoulam signed for Benitez’ Napoli from Saint-Etienne a year ago and linking the defender to Arsenal could be a ploy from either his agent or the Italian club to drive the price up or rush the Spanish giants into a move.

Either way, it would be a huge surprise to see Arsenal register any interest in the player.