For all of about 12 hours, Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus was the biggest story in world football. The Italian media went wild and it seemed only a matter of time before Higuain would be wearing the Old Lady’s stripes.
There were claims Juventus were set to pay Higuain’s buyout clause of €94m, and if those claims had been true then Higuain may now be a Juve player.
Napoli quickly came out and repeatedly rubbished things, slamming journalists, and informing the world that Juventus had been in contact… to make it clear they weren’t going to pay Higuain’s clause.
All the while, hovering in the background of the story, have been Arsenal.
Interestingly, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis is quoted by Gazzetta dello Sport as saying he’d have to pay over the odds for a replacement if “Higuain would go away, you know, to Arsenal, or to some other club.”
Gazzetta dello Sport say it’s some kind of wink toward Arsenal ‘perhaps unwittingly, or perhaps deliberately’.
Perhaps they’re reading too much into it, but De Laurentiis had already made it clear he doesn’t see Higuain going to Juventus, or to any other Italian club.
