Arsenal Transfer News: Napoli Emergence Will Make It Hard to Get Gonzalo Higuain

Arsenal have been linked to Gonzalo Higuain for virtually the entire summer, but recent developments will make it hard for the club to acquire the striker.

Sid Lowe of the Guardian reported early in July that the transfer was nearly complete for £23 million, and Higuain was set to sign a contract of £100,000 a week with the Gunners. Unfortunately, weeks have passed and no official announcement has been made.

Now, it appears as though the Premier League club will face serious competition for the talented player's services.

According to Simon Rice of the Independent, Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis recently stated:

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It's true that we're negotiating for Gonzalo Higuain and Leandro Damiao. The money we got for Cavani was €64.5m and added to the €60m we had set aside for the transfer budget there will be €124.5m to carefully invest on Napoli. There are various names on the table, we're assessing the situation.

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This is not good news for Arsenal as it remains in pursuit of the Real Madrid player. 

Napoli sold striker Edinson Cavani to Paris Saint-Germain, which leaves a giant hole on the club's roster. Cavani is one of the top scorers in the world, and the Serie A squad will need to be aggressive to find someone who can come close to replacing that ability.

Although Higuain is not the pure scorer that Cavani is, he has loads of ability around the net and has scored 38 goals in La Liga in the last two years. Combining this with his ability to create opportunities for others, the Argentine can seriously transform an offense.

This is obviously what has attracted Arsenal to the forward in the first place, although the competition is certain to create a bidding war that the English club could struggle to keep up with.

Napoli have plenty of money to spend and are clearly looking to use it this summer.

The club finished second in its league last season and will attempt to do well in Champions League this year as well as contend for a Serie A title.

In the meantime, Arsenal have been looking in other areas for an elite striker.

However, even the pursuit of Luis Suarez has hit a snag, as the club started to negotiate with Real Madrid, possibly for Higuain, according to John Edwards of the Daily Mail.

This could create problems for the Gunners heading into next season. Although the club has done well offensively in the first couple of friendlies, it will be much tougher to score against the top squads in Europe.

Arsenal clearly want to add another forward before the transfer window closes. If this is to eventually happen, they will need to step up their efforts dramatically to complete the deals.

Obviously, other clubs are not waiting around for Arsenal to make their move.

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