The impending signing of Martin Odegaard seems to have put an end to links to James Maddison, but the situation with Houssem Aouar is less clear.

There seems little doubt that Martin Odegaard will end up at Arsenal now, and various reports suggest this means any slim hopes of a deal for James Maddison are now off.

Yet those same reports aren’t so conclusive with Aouar. Whilst the Daily Mail report that the Odegaard deal signals an end to Arsenal’s interest in Maddison, they go on to say that the Gunners ‘continue to be linked to’ Aouar.

The Athletic previously wrote that at €25m, there was an acceptance at Arsenal that Aouar represented an excellent market opportunity, and they also enquired about a loan move. Though that was before the Odegaard deal reached this advanced stage.

RMC Sport (via GFFN) claim Lyon director of sport Juninho is looking to ship out a few players this summer, and the list includes Aouar. They claim Aouar could leave at a lower price than has previously been asked for.

There certainly wouldn’t be much of an issue fitting Odegaard and Aouar into the same team. As we saw last season, Odegaard tends to lean more towards the right-hand side of the pitch, whilst Aouar almost exclusively operates from the left.

Arsenal have at least one more urgent priority – in goal. Regardless of what you think about Aaron Ramsdale, it’s clear Mikel Arteta needs someone to fill the backup goalkeeper role in the squad.

But after that, another midfielder could make sense. Despite Odegaard’s likely arrival, Arsenal could still do with more creativity and dynamism in midfield.

I wouldn’t get your hopes up at this stage, and we’d have to see one or two more leaving first, it’s just one to keep an eye on in case things develop.