The Daily Mail are reporting today that Arsenal are in talks with Real Madrid over the potential signing of striker Karim Benzema.

We’ve been strongly linked with the French international for what seems like forever, with Arsene’s interest stemming back to when he left Lyon to join Madrid in 2009.

There was a lot of speculation that we were in for the 26-year-old last summer but any potential deal was put on the back-burner when Gonzalo Higuain was sold to Napoli. But it seems we’ve renewed our interest with the Mail claiming that we are already in talks with the Spaniard’s to try and bring the striker to the Emirates this summer.

Benzema has enjoyed an excellent season with Real, scoring 24 goals and providing 14 assists in 52 games and started during last night’s 4-1 victory over Atletico Madrid in the final of the Champions League.

However, he has been targetted by some sections of the Bernabeu crowd and was jeered off the pitch at times last year, which has led to speculation that Madrid are finally going to sell the striker and use the money to fund a move for Luis Suarez or Sergio Aguero.

I’d personally love to see Benzema come to Arsenal and feel he’d be a huge upgrade on Olivier Giroud, so I hope there is some truth in these reports. The Frenchman has just one year remaining on his contract so this is going to be a defining summer for him. Either Real are going to have to offer him a new deal, or sell, but it will all probably come down to whether they can find a replacement.

Buying Suarez or Aguero isn’t going to be easy, but Madrid have shown in the past they can pretty-much buy any player they want, so let’s hope they can persuade Liverpool or City into selling and we can get our hands on Benzema.