Arsenal chasing Real Madrid's Karim Benzema (again)

The days get longer. The sun shines brighter. It gets hot, the leaves blossom on trees, and the kids are out of school. Karim Benzema gets linked to a move to Arsenal.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's spring, and you know what that means. It's time for all our favorite perennial transfer target stories to start popping up again. This one, of course, actually makes some sense.

Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph is reporting that we're looking to lodge a £30 million bid just as soon as Real Madrid are done with the slight matter of their Champions League final next weekend. Benzema's contract is up next summer and, as we know all too well over here in Arsenalland, that means it's time to get to selling. Whether Madrid sells or simply tries to get Benzema to sign a new deal will depend at least in part on whether Madrid can find a viable replacement.

But after being rebuffed last year - Gonzalo Higuain had just departed, and Benzema wasn't itching to leave - it looks like there's a better chance this summer that Benzema is on the way out. He'd probably fit in well here, too - he's French, so he'll be fine communicating with Arsene Wenger, and Olivier Giroud is already used to backing Benzema up on the French national team. So we'll see whether or not there's anything to this in the coming weeks, I'm sure. I'd say a striker haul of Benzema and supposed recruit Carlos Vela would make me pretty happy, in terms of on-field player quality.