Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis has finally revealed why Arsenal failed to sign Gonzalo Higuain from the Serie A side earlier in the summer despite making a big money offer.
De Laurentiis was speaking with London Evening Standard where he claimed that he had offers from both Arsenal and Atletico Madrid but for Napoli, Higuain was never for sale.
In the end, Juventus decided to trigger Higuain’s release clause which saw the player join Napoli’s bitter rivals in a £75.3million deal.
However according to De Laurentiis, Arsenal made several inquiries about Higuain’s availability but could never match the offer Napoli were looking to extract for the Argentine international.
Speaking with Evening Standard, De Laurentiis also claimed that his team had offered Higuain a better contract than what he is currently at Juventus but the 28-year-old was adamant in quitting Napoli in search for titles and regular Champions League football.
In a sensational interview with Evening Standard, De Laurentiis said: “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.”
Since his move to Turin, Higuain’s Juventus are leading the Serie A table with 18 points from their first 7 matches while Higuain himself is at top of Serie A’s goal scoring charts after scoring 6 goals from the first 7 matches.
