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Report: Napoli Agree €35m Fee With Real Madrid For Gonzalo Higuain

By on July 21, 2013

Some worrying news coming from Italy today Gooners with La Corriere dello Sport claiming that Napoli have agreed a €35 million fee with Real Madrid for striker Gonzalo Higuain.

The Serie A outfit need a new frontman and have money to burn after selling Edinson Cavani to Paris Saint Germain last week for around £55m and it appears they’ve now edged closer to securing the services of one of our top targets.

Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis confirmed last week that they were in negotiations for both Arsenal target Higuain and reported Tottenham target Leandro Damiao:

‘’It’s true that we’re negotiating for Gonzalo Higuain and Leandro Damiao. The money we got for (Edinson) Cavani was 64.5million euros and added to the 60million euros we had set aside for the transfer budget there will be 124.5million euros to carefully invest on Napoli.’’ source: Sun

So, while we’ve been concentrating our efforts on trying to sign Luis Suarez, it seems Napoli have taken advantage by making their move for Higuain. If the Italian’s end up signing the Argentinean, it’s going to be a huge blow as our potential pool of top drawer strikers suddenly looks rather limited.

However, while the news emanating from Italy suggests Higuain may now soon be off the market, there are contrasting reports here in the British press. The Mail on Sunday claim that Napoli have in fact pulled out of negotiations after refusing to match Real’s asking price and will now go all out to try and sign Damiao.

It’s not uncommon for newspapers to take completely different stances on a particular transfer, but it’s certainly interesting that the Italian media suggest Napoli are close to signing Higuain while the British press take a more pro-Arsenal stance in claiming they’ve pulled out. Who you believe is entirely up to you but I’d much rather go with the Mail’s take on things!

While Suarez is no doubt a great talent, it looks like he’s going to cost us upward of £40m and we all know the baggage he’s going to bring. So personally, I think we should try and get a deal done with Madrid for Higuain. Paying around £30m for the Argentinean international seems like a better deal that paying over £40m for Suarez.

The big worry is that we spend so much time trying to sign Suarez, that we end up missing out on Higuain and Madrid will then come in and steal Suarez from under our noses. I personally don’t think Liverpool will sell to us anyway, so if Higuain does go to Napoli I think we’re in trouble.

Higuain is currently in England with the Madrid squad as they are taking on Bournemouth in a pre-season friendly on Sunday night (Higuain didn’t start the game), so how about we try and get something done on Monday so he’s readily available for a medical?! Or it that too simple?

UPDATE: Sky Italia are now also reporting that Napoli have agreed a deal with Madrid for Higuain. They claim the fee is €37m + €3m add ons, so unfortunately it looks like there might be something in this. Get on the phone Arsene!

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Who would you rather Arsenal sign? Suarez or Higuain? Are you worried we might miss out on both?