Report: Juventus abandon Higuain for Tevez; PSG have Ancelotti replacement

According to Turin's La Stampa, Juventus have started targeting other strikers after losing out on Gonzalo Higuain. The paper claims that Higuain's move to Arsenal is essentially done, with wages and a fee already agreed. Now, Juve are targeting Higuain's countryman Carlos Tevez as an alternative.

A lot of the certainty around this on the Arsenal internet appears to be based on a mistranslated quote (by Google Translate). The translation claims that Giuseppe Marotta says "To my knowledge, Higuain is already elsewhere," where in reality that is not the case.

Marotta said "I'm not aware of Higuain having signed elsewhere" but Arsenal blogs reporting "To my knowledge he already signed elsewhere"

— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) June 21, 2013

"Non mi risulta" means "I'm NOT aware" @Rupinder1996

— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) June 21, 2013

I certainly admit Arsenal seems to have all the momentum for Higuain, but the quote Arsenal fans are using is completely wrong

— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) June 21, 2013

Either way, it doesn't appear that there's any dispute over the rest of it - Juventus appear to be moving on to Tevez, leaving Arsenal as the only known suitor for Higuain. At least until someone else rebuts the rest of the translation.

The story, if true, is interesting, because it appears to be centered on Juventus' inability to compete with the fees and wages being offered by Arsenal. With the fee mooted there being only £22 million (with £130,000 a week in wages), it's actually less than what's been reported in some other sectors, and doesn't seem to be that steep. Either way, if this report is accurate, it's a little odd to be on the other side of the crash for once, to be the team pricing other (big) teams out of their transfer targets. I know Arsenal have always had a financial advantage over the vast majority of clubs, but to beat out a legitimate European power on price is something that hasn't happened for us in a while, to my recollection.

Either way, if this is going to happen it appears it could come sooner rather than later, as Real Madrid are a step closer to having a manager.

beIN Sport exclusive: Laurent Blanc will be PSG manager next season. #PSG

— Darren Tulett (@1DarrenTulett) June 21, 2013

beIN Sport exclusive: Laurent Blanc agrees two-year contract as new PSG manager. #PSG @beinsport

— Darren Tulett (@1DarrenTulett) June 21, 2013

With Blanc going to Paris Saint-Germain, that opens the door for PSG's current manager, Carlo Ancelotti, to make his long-rumored move to replace Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. Since it's long been claimed that Madrid have only been waiting on a manager to sign off on the Higuain deal, it looks like the Argentinian could be at Arsenal soon. Unless, of course, the whole damn thing falls apart, which at this point might kill me.

One way or the other, this should be reaching a resolution soon.