by Lewis Ambrose

Arsenal are said to be keenly keeping tabs on the situation in Madrid, as Karim Benzema could become available this summer.

Plenty have said that Arsenal need a star striker, though I wouldn’t agree. There are very few players in the world who are affordable, available, and could improve upon what we have with Alexis Sánchez, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck.

Benzema, however could.

Move

New Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez is known for his pragmatic approach to the game. He likes tidy organised football with wide players who track back and pull their weight defensively. That won’t suit Cristiano Ronaldo, who has spent previous seasons with the likes of Angel Di Maria and James Rodriguez doing his running for him.

According to AS, Benitez plans to combat that by moving the Portuguese up front, which would leave Benzema out in the cold.

Benzema is, at 27, at his peak and is unlikely to settle for a place on the bench. Despite scoring 22 goals last season the forward has always had his goal record at Real Madrid questioned. Much like international teammate Olivier Giroud, makes the rest of the team tick with his unselfish movement and superb combination play. According to Fichajes.net Arsenal’s interest could lead to a €25M bid.

Signing Benzema for just under £18M would be an incredible deal and, frankly, is difficult to imagine. A player of his calibre should cost far more and Real Madrid aren’t likely to let him go cheaply.

Arsenal may well have interest in the forward and could be monitoring his situation – it is well documented that Arsène Wenger admires him – but this isn’t in Arsenal’s hands. If the striker is made available, Arsenal would surely be interested. If he isn’t, we won’t force something to happen.