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Chief confirms Arsenal’s approach for £75m hitman – Quotes

By on October 6, 2016

According to the Evening Standard, Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis has confirmed that Arsenal made an approach for Gonzalo Higuain in the summer but failed to meet their valuation before his move to Juventus.

Higuain has been linked with a move to Arsenal since he was at Real Madrid and having missed out on signing him when he left the Bernabeu in 2013, we were once again strongly linked with the striker this past summer.

Arsene Wenger was desperately trying to sign a top class striker and Higuain was widely reported to be a prime target with several media outlets claiming throughout the summer that we had made our move for the Argentinean international.

There were even rumours of a potential swap deal involving Oliver Giroud but in the end, a deal failed to materialise and we eventually missed out once again after seeing Higuain join Juventus after they met his £75.3m release clause.

Now, Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis has confirmed that Arsenal did indeed make a formal approach for the 28-year-old but we failed to meet his asking price – which was the full value of his release clause because Napoli weren’t interested in selling.

De Laurentiis is quoted as saying by the Evening Standard:

“We received a request from Arsenal. Personally I also received a request from Atletico Madrid but they didn’t put enough money on the table.

“We were not ready to sell him – for me Higuain was not for sale [Juventus would ultimately meet his buyout clause].

“One year earlier I offered another five year contract to Higuain and his brother. ‘I will offer to you x’. It was more money than what he is getting right now from Juventus.”

Higuain has hit the ground running at Juve with 7 goals in his 9 games so far and it’s safe to say most Arsenal fans would have loved to have seen the Argentinean come to the Emirates.

However, there was no way Wenger was going to spend £75m on him and realistically the boss did the right thing as that is insane money for a 28-year-old – even if he is one of the best strikers in world football.