Gonzalo Higuain
Interested English clubs: Arsenal.
Eventual destination: Napoli.
The ‘will he, won’t he’ saga of Higuain’s transfer to the Gunners from the Santiago Bernabeu took many twists and turns over the summer, with even the striker’s father stating the Argentine would head to north London.
However, whilst before a £22m transfer seemed on the brink of being completed, suddenly Los Blancos upped the price and Arsenal reconsidered.
Napoli however, newly bolstered by the £55m received for Cavani, made the move and secured the 25-year-old for £34.5m.
Joao Moutinho
Interested English clubs: Tottenham Hotspur.
Eventual destination: AS Monaco.
Tottenham had shown interest in the talented Portuguese midfielder for some time and reignited that desire to sign the 26-year-old this summer.
Spurs have been lacking genuine creativity in central midfield since the departure of Luka Modric to Madrid 12 months ago and Moutinho looked like the perfect replacement.
Yet as soon as Monaco and their bags of money from Russian billionaire owner Dmitry Rybolovlev entered the race only one outcome was likely and the Portugal international, along with James Rodriguez, switched to the Principlaity from Porto for a combined fee of £60m.
Thiago Alcantara
Interested English teams: Manchester United.
Eventual destination: Bayern Munich.
New United manager David Moyes has highlighted central midfield as the area that needs improving this year with the retirement of Paul Scholes and ongoing health issues of Darren Fletcher.
Therefore when it became apparent Barcelona starlet and Spain under-21 captain Thiago was available at a cut-price, Moyes’ ears pricked up.
Yet despite coming close, the opportunity to join up with former boss Pep Guardiola at the Champions League winners was too good to refuse for the 22-year-old in the end.
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