Giroud might have netted two well taken goals against Sunderland, but the club very nearly signed the world class striker they’ve been screaming out for this summer.
Arsenal were close to offloading striker Olivier Giroud to Napoli in the summer as part of a potential deal to bring Gonzalo Higuain to the Emirates, Calciomercato report.
Arsene Wenger once again faced the ire of the more vocal faction of the Arsenal support in the off-season after The Gunners replenished their forward ranks with only the unproven Lucas Perez after missing out on their more ambitious targets such as Leicester City’s title-winning frontman Jamie Vardy and prolific Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette.
Such complaints have been swept under the carpet since the campaign begun however, with Alexis Sanchez evolving into a multi-faceted frontman in a new number nine role while Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil have chipped in impressively from nominally deeper positions.
However, Arsenal’s attacking set-up could have looked so much different if they had been able to generate traction on an ambitious deal to bring Higuain, who netted a scarcely believable 36 Serie A goals last season, breaking a 66-year-old record in the process, to North London.
According to Calciomercato, the Argentine had inked a contract with last season’s Premier League runners-up, only for Napoli’s famously hard-balling president, Aurelio Di Laurentiis, to scoff at Arsenal’s offer of £50 million with Giroud (below) thrown into the bargain.
Consequently, Higuain eventually became the most expensive player in Italian football history when he completed his controversial switch to Juventus weeks later before returning to haunt his old employers with the winning goal in a 2-1 win for the Bianconeri on Halloween weekend.
And, despite Giroud recovering from injury to net with both his first two touches against Sunderland on Saturday lunchtime, the fans could be forgiven for once again wondering why a club on such a sound financial footing as Arsenal can fail to tie up a deal.
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