Gonzalo Higuain, Arsenal await you with open arms

Olivier Giroud had a more than satisfactory début season in England. 17 goals in 33 starts is a very good return for a player who’d followed many others on the much-worn path from France to London. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is looking for players who have won trophies to inject that winning mentality into his club, which is why he brought Giroud in from Ligue 1 champions Montpellier Herault last summer.

But Giroud is far from the finished product. Additionally, he is Arsenal’s first-choice centre-forward and there is no one else at the club who can play that role. Lukas Podolski was widely tipped to play up front but Wenger has chosen to utilise the German out wide, in the same position he plays for Germany, a role that has seen him unleashed with devastating results at times.

And a combination of those reasons is exactly why Gonzalo Higuain is being targeted by the Gunners.

For years now, fans of the Emirates Stadium outfit have been clamouring for big-name signings. Their prayers are about to be answered with (hopefully) a slew of household stars, the first of which looks to be Higuain.

And while a player of Higuain’s talents will definitely shine at Arsenal, the club are also the perfect place for him.

“Half the Arsenal fans are annoyed because they think they should be doing more and should be doing better, but of all the madness and debt that surrounds football, what they have done is absolutely the right thing. What they now need to do, having nearly paid off their debt, is they need to go now. I think he knows, Arsene Wenger, that moment is now.”

- Gary Neville, commentator, Sky Sports

As long as Karim Benzema is at the Spanish capital, Higuain will be destined for the role of second-choice striker at the Santiago Bernabeu, despite the duo being used equally by Jose Mourinho. The reason for this is that Benzema was a signing personally chosen by current Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez, while El Pipita was hand picked by his predecessor, Ramon Calderon.

At a club where it is the top brass who have the final say in who should be brought to the club in order to ensure brand Real Madrid lives up to its larger than life image, the Argentina international has never really felt at home at the Bernabeu.

He arrived from Argentina at the age of 20, a mere stripling of a man and was thrown into the deep end straight away. And he seemed to be okay with handling the immense pressure that football at one of Europe’s finest brought. Indeed, on his league début for Madrid, he assisted his team’s only goal in their win over Real Zaragoza on the 14th of January, 2007.

Later that season, he scored a last-minute winner in a 4-3 win against Espanyol, shortly after he scored his first Madrid goal in the Derbi Madrileño. Goals that would turn out to be very crucial: that season, Real only beat Barcelona to the title on head-to-head performances, an achievement that would have been impossible without Higuain’s contribution.

“No one has gifted me anything. I have had to fight for everything,. I want to go somewhere where they really want me.”

- Gonzalo Higuain

But question marks were peppered all over his perceived ability of not being able to score goals when it mattered, despite him showcasing just that in his first half-season in Madrid. He’d struggled to break into the first team (who wouldn’t in the presence of Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy) in 2008 but once again, showed promise when he scored in a 2-1 comeback against Osasuna, allowing Los Blancos to seal their title and following that up with a goal against Barcelona just 57 seconds after coming off the bench.

Those question marks never went away, despite the Argentine who had arrived for just €12 million from River Plate displacing van Nistelrooy and chipping in with many, crucial last-minute goals, four of which came in a 4-3 win over Malaga in the 2008-09 season. He finished that season with no title, but was at par with Samuel Eto’o when it came to goals, having found the back of the net 29 times.

Why then, did these questions persist? Was it because he was not one of Real Madrid’s own? As Sid Lowe says in the Guardian:

“When Higuaín arrived in the winter of 2006-07, some team-mates ironically dubbed him Igualín – roughly, Samey – because he was just like Ronaldo. He did not always take his chances and the goals didn’t flow.

Despite being Hispanic, one of the problems could have been that he wasn’t Spanish to begin with. Real Madrid have always been associated with Spanish nationalism during the regime of the hated Francisco Franco and some of those sentiments have never gone away.

Add to that his Argentine nationality, a problem that also affected Lionel Messi when he first came to Spain. The man now idolised as one of modern-day football’s greatest players was given a provisional Barcelona license in 2001, but was only allowed to play league football in 2005, after a long-winded legal process between the club and the Professional Football League.

Spanish football rules that year had been amended to state that naturalised non-EU players’ between the ages of 17 an 19 who had developed at a Spanish club were allowed to occupy an EU berth because they had come up through the ranks. This meant that Messi was perfectly allowed to play despite Barca’s three non-EU spots occupied by Ronaldinho, Rafa Marquez and Eto’o.

But clubs had complained that this modification was only made to allow Messi to play. Inter Milan were circling and despite Messi finally putting pen to paper on a pro contract, he was still not allowed to play as the League’s representatives had voted against that amendment.

It was only when Messi finally took Spanish citizenship that he was finally permitted to play. But other clubs still saw him as foreign and threatened to kick up a storm. Nothing would happen though: he was now legally permitted to play.

“He’s a top, top player. He will always score goals. He likes to be in the box all the time and he works hard for his team – wherever he goes he’s going to be great for the team he’s joining.”

- Osvaldo Ardilles

It is a similar case with Higuain, who is regarded as foreign. He is the model of consistency at Madrid. During the 2009-10 season, he scored more goals (29) than star signing Cristiano Ronaldo, but his detractors were always waiting for him to slip up.

When he did, they were quick to make him the scapegoat. When Real lost out to Lyon in the Round of 16 of the Champions League in 2010, Higuain – who hit the post in that game – was made the fall guy. When he missed chances against Bayern in the semis two seasons ago, despite not being fully fit and carrying a back injury, he was jeered whenever he showed signs of profligacy.

No one pointed fingers at Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil, who had missed opportunities that were equally gilt-edged.

Despite Higuain’s goal getting Real to a record 100-point mark that season, those at the top – like Commodus was of Maximus in Gladiator - seemed enraged whenever he scored. One had to wonder therefore whether those who wanted him to leave had their own interests in mind.

Last season, Higuain had a conversion rate of 27.8%, and only six players had a better percentage than he did. He is, therefore the model of consistency. Consistency that Arsenal would do well to acquire.

At Arsenal, politics do not come onto the pitch, and that means Gonzalo Higuain would be guaranteed a place at the Emirates Stadium if he continues to showcase the talents that made Jose Mourinho persuade him to stay on when he had made up his mind to leave.

His excellent presence in the box means he is the man to snaffle home the myriad number of chances that the Gunners create. He can switch between the roles of fox in the box and centre forward effortlessly and with the ability to peel past the last defender and close the opposition down quickly, he is indeed a player who will be loved by all at Ashburton Grove.

And that, at long last could see the return of silverware to the Arsenal.