Following the announcement of Arsenal’s latest signing Rob Holding, Gunners fans should continue to sit tightly behind their computer screens.
That’s because the deal that almost every Gooner wants to happen could be back on after Napoli’s President, Aurelio de Laurentiis, provided an exciting update whilst talking to Italian media.
According to the 67-year-old, the Serie A club are looking to sign at least ELEVEN new squad players this summer as they aim for Champions League success.
Roberto Mancini’s men are trailing in the shadow of their Italian rivals, Juventus, who have enjoyed success in Europe over the last few seasons, beating Napoli to the title by a comfortable nine points.
And now Laurentiis has confirmed that it will be a busy transfer window for his side as they begin to reignite their competition with the Italian giants, starting with several fresh faces.
We’re working on various areas of the pitch.
We’re after Donati and 10 others. We need a right-back – maybe it’d be better to have someone who can play either side – then we need one or two midfielders.
Then we’ll see if we’ll need a replacement for Higuain or not. Even without Higuain, we came second in 2013.
Arsenal fans can take any opinion from these comments as they can be very misleading, but if you ask me Napoli are already planning for life without Higuain.
If they are willing to get that number of players in this transfer window then funds are going to be a huge asset to push the deals over the line, and that’s where Higuain could help.
The Argentinian comes with the hefty price tag of £78.5million, and although it’s a steep asking price it’ll be more than enough to sign at least four new players in today’s market.
Higuain’s age and lack of versatility makes it unlikely that Arsenal will spend such a large amount on him. If it was someone like Antoine Griezmann I could see Wenger happy to spend a huge amount, as he’s younger and could play alongside manager favourite, Olivier Giroud.
That could well be a huge attraction for Napoli, who could be resigned to losing their star man who seems to be unhappy with his current situation following the comments of his agent.
This transfer merry-go-round can work in both ways, new players come in and all of a sudden Higuain feels the team are stable enough. If they don’t come quickly then the shorter his patience becomes, which could be great news for Arsene Wenger.
Laurentiis has confirmed that Atletico Madrid are the only club to make a formal offer, but the €60m plus three players wasn’t enough to convince the club to sell.
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