Some reports are saying that the deal for Gonzalo Higuain could be wrapped up before the end of the day. It would be awesome if that happened and while I’m optimistic that I’ll log on to Arsenal.com later on today and we’ll see the news we’ve all been waiting for, I fear that it might be after the weekend before we hear anything official. But you never know.
Yesterday there were rumours that the deal was a 3 year contract, and then 3 years was the time we were going to pay the fee, so at the moment the whole situation is a bit foggy to say the least. And there were rumours that he flew out to London last night, but again there are disputes about that.
But once the deal is completed, we’ll have our answers.
So the next big question is:
Is Gonzalo Higuain the man to fire Arsenal to trophies?
With the whole Higuain deal taking weeks to resolve, there are more questions than answers. Yes, we are going to break the record for a single transfer fee and yes, it seems that we are going to break our wage record as well. But since this has been going on for “weeks” now, how come another team hasn’t tried to come in a poach him from under our noses.
£22 million is a lot of money to us, but not for like likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. There’s no doubt that on paper at least, his record is impressive but how come no other team put their ring into the hat? Surely, after working with Higuain last season, Mourinho would think that he is a better option than Fernando Torres?
Pellegrini has also managed the Argentine so how come he didn’t think he was worth bringing to The Etihad? The only other “interest” was from Juventus which I still think is dubious as they’ve got Tevez for £12 million which is more like the kind of fee they can afford, nothing like £22 million plus fee that Higuain would demand.
It just surprises me that when it was clear that Higuain was set for leaving Madrid, no other teams seriously considered him. When Suarez turned around and gave two fingers up at Liverpool, he was linked to PSG, Real Madrid and even teams like Manchester City and Arsenal. With Higuain, there was none of this paper talk.
It could be because that a deal in principle was agreed with Arsenal all this time, but you’d think the press would spice up the story with other bidders to sell more newspapers and get more hits on their websites.
It would not have been beyond the realms of possibilty to make up a story that other clubs were in for Higuain and that’s why the deal with Arsenal was stalling or taking so long.
Maybe I’m doubting Higuain unfairly at the moment because this transfer has become tedious and quite frankly, boring. The longer the “saga” has dragged on the more tired Arsenal fans have become at the deal not happening. If there were no rumours and Arsenal brought in Higuain out of the blue then there would be an explosion of excitement amongst the Arsenal faithful.
But the way things are, if and when the deal actually happens then we’ll all just probably be relieved.