Arsenal have expressed an interest in signing Real Madrid starlet Marcos Llorente, according to AS.

Llorente was due to play a part in Madrid’s squad this season but has found himself behind some very talented midfielders.

According to AS (via Team Talk), this could lead to the midfielder leaving the club and joining either Arsenal, Atletico Madrid or Sevilla.

A product of Madrid’s academy, Llorente enjoyed an excellent loan with Deportivo Alaves last season. He was regarded as one of the best performing holding midfielders in La Liga.

He returned to Real Madrid, where he was to offer competition for Brazilian defensive midfielder, Casemiro.

However, AS claim that Madrid believe that Mateo Kovacic offers adequate enough cover and won’t be able to give Llorente the first team football that he wants.

Llorente could be an exciting signing for Arsenal but if the AS report is true, it’d be an unlikely one.

They say that Madrid would want to loan him or sell him with a buyback clause.

Arsenal are very unlikely to agree to those terms and would want to own the player outright without any danger of losing him after one or two good seasons.