Rumours of an Arsenal move for Jerome Boateng are alive again, with Bayern Munich agreeing to sign a defender today, according to reports in Germany.

Most recently, the reports of Arsenal interest in Jerome Boateng came to a standstill after Christian Falk suggested Bayern didn’t want to let the defender leave this month. At the time, he claimed Bayern thought their squad was too small.

That might change now though, as Bayern are signing Alvaro Odriozola from Real Madrid on loan. Though Odriozola plays at right-back, it frees Benjamin Pavard to fill in at centre-back. As a result, Bayern don’t need Boateng so desperately.

Unsurprisingly, Jan Aage Fjortoft now claims Arsenal are in for Boateng again. The Gunners are looking for loans or low-cost signings this month, particularly to help out at centre-back.

William Saliba and Konstantinos Mavropanos are on loan. Calum Chambers is out with injury and Rob Holding is still searching for full match sharpness. Shkodran Mustafi is flirting with an exit. Defensive options are running thin.

Even Sokratis Papastathopoulos struggled with an illness this week, only leaving David Luiz fully fit and healthy.

Boateng is up to 16 competitive appearances for the season, picking up five yellow cards and one red. Bayern haven’t given him much consistency in the team this campaign so far though. He’s made the starting lineup 14 times versus the bench 10 times.

If the new signing sees Boateng missing out even more often, he may well push for a move.