Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has made no secret of his desire to sign Martin Odegaard.
One of the Gunners' main transfer priorities this summer, in terms of incomings, is to sign a creative midfielder and their first-choice option is to bring the Norway international following an impressive loan spell.
But as revealed by football.london , if Arsenal technical director Edu fails in his attempts to bring Odegaard back to north London, then it will be Emiliano Buendia who becomes the prime target with an offer being prepared for the £40million-rated playmaker.
Although, it is quite clear that Arteta's preference is to sign Odegaard on a permanent basis as talks with Real Madrid are planned in the coming weeks.
"We have a very clear and strong opinion on what we would like to do, but he’s not our player," Arteta said after the 2-0 win over Brighton on the final day of the Premier League season.
"We will have to discuss in the next few weeks what and respect first of all because he’s a Real Madrid player and have those communications.
"We tried to make everything that we could to get Martin [Odegaard] performing for the team, which I think he’s done.
"He has adapted really well to our way of playing and to our football club.
"Hopefully, we have given him as well the hope and the feeling that it could be a good place for him."
With that said, Odegaard's situation is rather complicated at the moment as Real Madrid parted company with Zinedine Zidane last week which means the final decision on the playmaker's future could be made by the new manager.
However, reports in Spain claim Real Madrid are looking to offload Odegaard on a permanent basis regardless of their managerial appointment.
And in a boost for Arsenal, they have reportedly been 'told' that £51.5million is the absolutely 'minimum figure' to reach an agreement for Odegaard.
But there's a major problem regarding this deal - and it revolves around Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
As per the Mirror, the Los Blancos chief is Odegaard's biggest admirer at the club and would block any type of transfer that would see the 22-year-old leave permanently.
So unless Edu is able to change Perez's stance it would appear that Arsenal will have to press ahead with Odegaard alternatives.
