Birmingham City sources are denying reports of interest in Arsenal’s Omar Rekik, with the Gunners setting their asking price for a sale.

Arsenal youth defender Omar Rekik was linked with a potential loan move to Birmingham City this week, but sources around the midlands club are playing down the claims.

BirminghamLive report that they’ve been informed Rekik isn’t currently on the Blues’ agenda, and the club are in fact more interested in bringing Auston Trusty back.

Trusty spent time on loan from Arsenal last season, winning Birmingham City’s Supporters’ Player of the Season award after a strong campaign.

But Birmingham face competition from the likes of Ipswich Town to sign Trusty, who is currently on tour with Arsenal in the USA.

Back on Rekik, Ihsen Ben Salah reports that Arsenal are asking for €3.5m (£3m) for a permanent sale this summer.

The centre-back has a deal with Arsenal until 2025, so a loan and a sale are both still options on the table at this stage.

Rekik started out the 2022/23 campaign on loan with Sparta Rotterdam, but after struggling for consistent minutes with the Dutch side, he was recalled and loaned to Wigan Athletic in January.

In many ways, that spell was a lot more successful. Rekik played 11 times, making 10 starts, and from March until the end of the season he never had more than one consecutive game out of the team.

On the other hand, Wigan were relegated, so it wasn’t all good news.

The defender seemed to make a good impression with Wigan, and he needs a consistent run of games regardless of his destination this summer.

It doesn’t currently appear as if that destination will be Birmingham.