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By Wayne Veysey

Arsenal have made an improved offer of £23.1 million for Gonzalo Higuain, Goal can reveal.


Arsenal had been reluctant to pay more than £21m for the Argentinian, but manager Arsene Wenger sanctioned a fresh bid closer towards Real's £25.5m valuation of the player.

It is understood that the compromise figure of £23.1m could be enough to finalise a deal that has been in the pipeline for a number of weeks.


Those talks did not result in an agreement but the dialogue has continued in the intervening period and, despite Wenger considering an alternative proven striker, a breakthrough is now close to being reached.

Higuain's personal terms have already been agreed in principle, with a £100,000-a-week contract on the table. This will bring the forward in line with Arsenal's top earners Theo Walcott and skipper Thomas Vermaelen, providing a bumper rise on his relatively modest £64,000-a-week deal at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Juventus also made the prolific forward an offer but are unwilling to pay a £20m-plus fee after pairing Carlos Tevez with fellow new signing Fernando Llorente.


The Higuain deal would become Arsenal's first £20m-plus transfer fee and comfortably smash the club's record outlay for a player.


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