Arsenal have had their hopes of keeping Martin Odegaard beyond this season boosted by suggestions that Zinedine Zidane might not want the midfielder at Real Madrid.

The 22-year-old moved to the Emirates on loan in January and has already made quite an impact for Mikel Arteta’s side.

According to Football Insider, should Zidane remain Real manager come the summer, he would have no issue with letting the Norway captain depart the Bernabeu.

Odegaard signed for Real Madrid from hometown club Stromsgodset as a 16-year-old, but he has been unable to break into the first team for the 13-time European champions.

He’s played 130 club games over the last six years – but 119 of them have come during loan spells at Heerenveen, Vitesse Arnhem, Real Sociedad and now Arsenal.

For the sake of his development, moving on may well be best for Odegaard, whose display in the Gunners’ 3-3 draw at West Ham last Sunday was described as ‘incredible’ by Arteta.

That was Odegaard’s 12th appearance for Arsenal, who he’s now turned out for more times than his parent club. He scored his first goal in the 3-1 Europa League last-16 first-leg win over Olympiakos, before following it up by equalising against Tottenham in the north-London derby, which the Gunners went on to win 2-1.