Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been an admirer of French striker, Karim Benzema, for a long, long time and has been linked with attempts to land his signature on many occasions.
Now, after his comments during the Champions League final,the Real Madrid striker may finally be on his way to the Emirates, or at least the English top flight!
Speaking during Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid on the weekend, Wenger said the striker ‘could play his last game for Real Madrid today’, and ‘I’m sure Benzema will play in the Premier League one day’.
During his time in London, Wenger has signed and managed a multitude of French players including Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Mathieu Flamini, Samir Nasri, Laurent Koscielny and Bacary Sagna, to name just some of them!
So it is not surprising to hear of Wenger’s interest in bringing in Benzema to help bolster a strikeforce that last season relied a little too heavily on Olivier Giroud, with their second top scorer coming in the form of Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
The French manager would surely love to replicate what Brendan Rodgers achieved at Liverpool with 2 strikers netting 20+ goals and 2 midfielders in double figures.
Benzema, 26, had a good season for the newly-crowned European champions, scoring 24 goals in all competitions, and Wenger will have to dig deep to convince the Spanish giants to part with him, most likely with a fee close to what Arsenal spent on Mesut Ozil last summer (that being £42.5 million).
Arsenal will also be hoping that Benzema can gel well enough in the Gunners’ squad so as to overcome his penchant of not performing on the very biggest of stages, with the upcoming World Cup also being an opportunity for him. Arsenal need someone who can terrorize defences up at the top of the Premier League, with the club performing poorly against the top four.
Arsenal have also been linked with a QPR striker Loic Remy. Remy, yet another Frenchman, spent last season on loan at Newcastle, where he scored 14 goals in 26 appearances, and would be a considerably cheaper option for the Gunners, as he would not be expected to cost too much more than £10m.
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