Arsenal have made contact with Olympique Lyonnais over the signing of Nabil Fekir, according to reports in France.

L’Equipe (via GFFN) report Arsenal have ‘initiated contacts’ with Lyon over the possibility of signing their club captain. Fekir’s contract expires in 2020, so Lyon are insisting he’ll either leave for €30m or sign an extension with the club.

Fekir has previously received offers from China, but they don’t fit with his personal ambitions. He’s waiting to see if Arsenal’s interest becomes more concrete in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately, the reliability of the claims is somewhat thrown into doubt by L’Equipe claiming Arsenal would have to sell Mesut Özil first.

It seems unlikely Özil will leave, but it seems even more unlikely Arsenal would publicly reveal they have to sell a specific player before they can buy. There’s no obvious reason the Gunners couldn’t sell any number of other players to fund a move.

As such, take the claims with a pinch of salt. It does seem like a move for Fekir is starting to become a real possibility though, with the Mirror also reporting that he’s an option for Arsenal as the Wilfried Zaha deal starts to look very unlikely.

Fekir scored 12 goals and assisted nine in 39 appearances this season, though he did also have a couple of injury problems.