Napoli president confirms interest in Arsenal defender

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has confirmed that the club are considering a move for Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Arsenal.

Sokratis fell out-of-favour following the arrival of manager Mikel Arteta last term and he made only three league starts in the backend of the campaign.

With just 10 months remaining on his contract, he is free to head through the exit door and De Laurentiis has confirmed that the defender is on Napoli's radar.

"We are working on signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Arsenal, we consider it an option," he told Il Napoli Online.

Sokratis has made 44 league appearances in the past two years, but the majority of those games came under former boss Unai Emery.

It is quite clear that he does not fit into the plans of Arteta and it remains to be seen whether he will pursue a fresh challenge this summer.

It has previously been reported that the Greek could see out his contract in order to command a sizeable signing-on fee next summer.