A trio of top-flight clubs are all currently chasing the experienced Spaniard.
Check in to Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur
Premier League leaders Arsenal have now joined the race to sign coveted Real Madrid holding midfielder Xabi Alonso.
Read more Arsenal FC news
The brilliant Spain international has been linked with a whole host of big-name Premier League clubs of late, including the likes of both mega-rich Chelsea and the player’s former club Liverpool too, after failing to agree a contract extension with the La Liga giants.
Alonso has been at the Santiago Bernabeu now since August 2009, when the experienced holding midfielder left Anfield for los Blancos in a five-year deal worth a whopping £30m.
However, with the 32-year-old’s contract in the Spanish capital set to run out in June 2014, Alonso is now entitled to start speaking to foreign-based suitors in the January transfer window ahead of a possible lucrative free transfer away from Real at the end of this season.
Or Madrid may even decide to cash in on the in-demand Spaniard this month for a cut-price fee rather than risk losing one of their star men for nothing next summer, although either way Alonso will definitely not still be a Real player next season come what may.
And that is because Alonso has refused to return Madrid president Florentino Perez’s phone calls during the recent winter break in Spain as the midfielder and his agent both weigh up all the options currently available to them on the table, which include deals to play in the Major League Soccer, the Middle East and several from the Premier League too.
But it is understood that Alonso has already ruled out a move to either the US or the Middle East, with the 109-times capped La Roja veteran still keen for one last adventure in his career with a major European club, preferably in the English top flight, leaving him with a choice to make between the offers he currently has from Liverpool, Chelsea and now also Arsenal.
However, of those trio of Premier League giants, the player is said to have already ruled out the possibility of making an emotional return to Merseyside, leaving him now with a straight decision between the west and north Londoners, with the ball-playing midfielder set to make up his mind within the next fortnight.
And while Alonso did work for three largely successful years under the current Chelsea manager in La Liga, that is not thought likely to influence him into picking the Blues over the Gunners though, with the recent word coming out of the deep-lying playmaker’s camp suggesting that in actual fact, a move to the Emirates is what now appeals more to the Spaniard.