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Hope For Arsenal? Higuain’s Move To Napoli Hits Late Snag

By on July 26, 2013

I stumbled across some intriguing news tonight Gooners with Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri confirming that Gonzalo Higuain’s proposed move to Napoli has been held up once again due to a late snag over add ons.

Arsenal came close to signing the Argentinean two weeks ago before Real Madrid upped the asking price at the last minute following interest from Napoli. The Italians were flush with cash after selling Edinson Cavani to PSG and had offered in excess of £30m for the 25-year-old. Arsene Wenger wasn’t prepared to match their offer so we switched our attention to Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and left the Serie A club free to agree a deal with Madrid and the player.

Higuain arrived in Italy on Wednesday and was mobbed at the airport by excited Napoli fans before heading off to complete his medical ahead of a scheduled Thursday evening press conference to announce is signing. But, Thursday came and went and the press conference was cancelled at the last minute, with Napoli claiming that ‘minor contractual issues’ had held up the deal, and a new press conference was scheduled for Friday evening.

However, once again the unveiling has been cancelled and Higuain is yet to be confirmed officially as a Napoli player, with respected Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri claiming the two clubs are still haggling over add ons, saying the hold up is now becoming a ‘mystery’.

I’ve also read rumours online that Madrid have moved the goal posts at the last minute again, demanding more add ons on top of the reported £32m fee, which wouldn’t surprise me given how they acted when we were negotiating with them.

The likelihood is the clubs will eventually iron everything out and Higuain will become a Napoli player, but should Arsenal try and make a late attempt to hijack the deal given the situation with Suarez is begging to look like it could get complicated and VERY expensive?

Suarez and his agent are at loggerheads with Liverpool over this supposed clause and there’s even been talk of him taking the club to court as he feels any bid of over £40m acts as an automatic release clause. Liverpool are digging their heels in and are insisting the clause means nothing, and are demanding in excess of £50m from us, which is A LOT of money considering the baggage he’ll bring.

Higuain could potentially be around £20m cheaper and wouldn’t divide the Arsenal fan-base half as much as Suarez is currently doing, so I’d love to see Wenger try and steal the Argentinean hitman from under Napoli’s noses. He better get on the phone quickly though….

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What do you think? Would you like to see us make a late move for Higuain? Or should we continue with our pursuit of Suarez?

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