by Lewis Ambrose

AS Monaco defender Aymen Abdennour has admitted that he is interested in leaving the Ligue 1 club for a new challenge.

The centre-half has been linked with a move to Arsenal in the past as well as more recently and was impressive as Monaco went into the Champions League quarter-finals at our expense last season.

“I am ready for anything.

“I’d love to play for big clubs,” said the defender in an interview with L’Equipe.

“Why not leave so I can make more progress?”

The 25 year-old defender has 33 caps for Tunisia and has played in the top French division since 2011, plying his trade for Toulouse before moving to AS Monaco.

The defender certainly isn’t hiding his intentions at Monaco now as he looks to leave the club.

“We have held advanced discussions with several clubs,” he said.

Whether or not that’s true we don’t know but it doesn’t seem likely that Arsenal are one of those clubs.

Opponent

Back in February, Abdennour certainly proved a formidable opponent as he and Olivier Giroud struggled over the two legs of a Champions League clash.

Abdennour was physically capable of handling Giroud, which is no mean feat.

However, Arsenal have Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny as first-choice central defenders and it is doubtful anyone will be signed to usurp either Calum Chambers or Gabriel as our backups in that position.

With Liverpool allegedly interested in the defender it is more likely he will be there next year – if he ends up in England at all.