Despite Italian journalist, Emanuele Giulianelli, claiming that Karim Benzema is signing for us by Friday, Arsene Wenger denies this is the case… sort of.
Speaking during his press conference before Arsenal’s match against West Ham, the boss was quizzed about his apparent interest in the Real Madrid star.
“The media spoke about this, I never came out on Karim Benzema,” he said.
Whether he’s being cryptic and simply implying that he hasn’t directly said anything about the forward himself, or whether there’s genuinely no interest, I’m not sure.
Italian journalist, Giulianelli, believes Arsenal’s representatives have flown to Madrid to tie up the deal, rumoured to be worth £35m and £120k a week.
Benzema himself asked Real Madrid to join Arsenal. The meeting of tomorrow is to agree the payment terms.
— Emanuele Giulianelli (@EmaGiulianelli) August 6, 2015
Benzema himself asked Real Madrid to join Arsenal. The meeting of tomorrow is to agree the payment terms.
— Emanuele Giulianelli (@EmaGiulianelli) August 6, 2015
In contrast, journalist, Graham Hunter, has revealed he doesn’t think the 27-year-old is on his way to north London.
“Arsenal have the money and Real Madrid need the money – they’re €500m in debt,” he said. “They’re trying to buy David de Gea and won’t go the extra mile to get him off Manchester United because of the cash so they need the money.
“It is a doable deal, but it won’t happen unless Benzema says to Real Madrid, ‘I want to go to Arsenal’.”
Despite vaguely denying interest in Benzema, Wenger didn’t rule out the possibility of signing a striker, if he feels we need one.
“At the moment we do not have Sanchez, not Welbeck, and when these players come back we feel that we have the needed striking force,” he said. “But we don’t rule out as well if something exceptional turns up to do it.”