Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis has said that Arsenal were unsuccessful in their pursuit of Gonzalo Higuain over the summer because ‘they didn’t put enough money on the table’.
28-year-old Higuain has been on Arsene Wenger’s radar for a while, but it was Italian giants Juventus who got a €90 million deal done to secure the Argentine’s services.
However, the Gunners did express an interest in the former Real Madrid striker, who scored 88 goals in three seasons at Napoli, but president de Laurentiis was not satisfied with how much they were willing to pay.
He told Standard Sport: ‘I think we received some requests 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.’
Higuain rose to prominence when he joined Madrid in 2007 and, although the first few seasons at the Bernabeu were a struggle, the forward began to show exactly what he could do in front of goal as his Madrid career progressed.
He scored 22 goals in La Liga back in the 2008/09 season, but then improved that total to 27 the season after to become Madrid’s top scorer ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Arsenal have been monitoring Higuain’s situation for a while in a bid to bolster their own attacking options, which are currently lead by number one forward Olivier Giroud.
Although the Frenchman has exceeded 20 goals in two of his four seasons at the Emirates, many fans and pundits alike feel that another top quality striker is needed for Arsenal to seriously challenge for the title.
