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Reports: Madrid Deny Arsenal ‘Agreement’ And Claim Higuain Could Stay

By on July 5, 2013

Yet another apparent ‘twist’ in the long-running Higuain to Arsenal saga today Gooners with Spanish daily newspaper Marca claiming that Real Madrid have denied any agreement is in place with Arsenal and suggest the striker is closer to staying at the Bernabeu than leaving for north London.

Several reports on Thursday claimed we’d finally agreed a fee in the region of £23m with Madrid and the striker was understood to have agreed a three-year deal worth £100,000-a-week. Noises coming out of Argentina suggested the 25-year-old would arrive back in Madrid on Thursday evening (which he did), before heading over to London on Friday for his medical (?).

However, according to Marca – a Madrid-based newspaper who are known to have close ties with the club – the La Liga giants have denied any agreement is in place, insist that it would take an offer in excess of £23m to land Higuain and even suggest Arsenal are yet to submit a written formal offer for the player.

The report – which is written by Ulises Sánchez-Flor, who just happened to by Gonzalo Higuaín’s biographer – goes on to say that manager Carlo Ancelotti is open to the idea of Higuain staying, and with three years left on his contract and no formal bids on the table, he suggests the striker is closer to staying at the Bernabeu than leaving this summer.

On the surface this report is worrying but if you think about it, it’s more than likely just a negotiating tactic to try and force Arsenal into upping their bid. Marca are known to be Madrid’s ‘mouthpiece’ and the club is thought to ‘leak’ information to the paper to fit it’s agenda.

So I wouldn’t be getting too worried just yet and I’d take Marca’s claims with a huge pinch of salt. Slightly worrying though, is that it does look like reports of a fee being agreed were wide of the mark. There would be no need for Madrid to ‘release’ this story if they were happy with what we’d offered. So it looks as though this saga could be set to run for a few more days yet.

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Are you worried after hearing about Marca’s claims? Do you think Higuain will end up joining Arsenal?

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