Sky Sports News have reported that Arsenal are “in advanced talks” with Real Madrid to sign German international Mesut Özil.

According to Guillem Balague, Real Madrid and Arsenal have reached a deal for Özil for 45 million euros, pending an agreement with the player who apparently, it desperate to leave the club.

I have no idea how much he is on but I would be certain that for any deal to happen we’d have to beat – or at least match – his current wage. I would assume he is on a big wage at Madrid (since they don’t seem to have any financial culpability) so it will interesting to see how this develops.

The signs are positive but lets not forget that we’ve been here before. We were well in for Gonzalo Higuain and look what happened there. And of course, there’s nothing stopping another club coming in for him, a la Higuain.

The deal does “make sense” in terms of Bale signing for £85.3 million and the theory that Özil’s chances may be restricted with the Welshman’s arrival. Also, there’s an idea that Madrid will want to get back some of the money they’ve spent on Bale.

Daniel Levy has delayed the Bale deal for weeks and weeks, as it was thought Arsenal were going to pick up a couple of Real Madrid players once that deal was completed – and Levy didn’t want Arsenal to strengthen as we are perceived to be their biggest challengers for 4th position in the league.

Another positive is that Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker could influence the German’s decision by saying how much they love it at The Emirates. There are reports the Manchester United might hijack the deal with Kagawa apparently going to PSG. So we’ll have to wait and see.

The next 24 hours are going to be absolutely mental for Arsenal rumours on new signings – even more so than the last 3 months – so I would say brace yourself and wait for Arsenal to confirm any new signings before getting too excited!