:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46871490/GettyImages-481192658.0.jpg)
The plot is thickening in the Karim Benzema-to-Arsenal saga, if transfer journalism Twitter is to be believed. Kike Marin, best known around these parts for breaking the Mesut Özil-to-Arsenal news, sent out a tweet this morning with a possible scenario that would bring the French international striker alongside his national team pals Olivier Giroud (who also happens to be a French international striker) and Laurent Koscielny.
The tweet in question:
@Arsenal Benzema goes to #Arsenal if #RealMadrid signs a centre forward. Florentino wants Kun. Wenger will offer €50M pic.twitter.com/HPJvZnhGnd
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) July 31, 2015
To translate: Florentino "Euros" Perez, Real Madrid's president, covets Manchester City striker Sergio Kun Aguero. (We're with you so far.) Arsene Wenger will send Dick Law to Madrid with a briefcase containing £35 million, once Manchester City (who will, according to Sky Sports, send another of its strikers, longtime Arsenal transfer rumor Edin Dzeko, to Roma, once the fee is settled) sends its best player to Real Madrid to join the most potent offensive unit in the world.
Though the three-way works out nicely for Arsenal and especially for Real, it doesn't make sense for City. They could turn Aguero into Charlie Austin -- still inexplicably with Queens Park Rangers despite being the exact player you'd expect to be saved from the ignominy of the Championship following relegation -- and two homegrown defenders. This would solve several problems plaguing City (not having enough homegrown players, regularly starting Martin Demichelis), but would do so at the expense of losing their best player, and indeed, one of the best players in the entire Premier League.
And then, there's this, from yesterday, and from a prominent Spanish transfer window journalist, Guillem Balague:
For those asking: no chance whatsoever of Benzema leaving Real Madrid this summer (so no way he will go to Arsenal)
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) July 30, 2015
There is, of course, also the possibility that if Benzema and Aguero both really wanted changes of scenery, the two clubs could work out some sort of deal between them, and leave Arsenal out of the mix entirely. (A mix that might, indeed, live solely in the imagination of Kike Marin.)