Partenopei set to face Arsenal at the Emirates.
Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis is looking forward to Tuesday night’s clash with Arsenal, while he also talked about Rafa Benitez and Gonzalo Higuain.
The Serie A giants are in London on Tuesday night to face Arsenal in the Champions League, and with Dortmund and Marseille also in the group, points will be vital at this early stage.
“It’s very tough, because the Gunners are very, very strong. We met them last August, but today will be a different game. We don’t play with fear. We play, we just enjoy and I hope it will be a very good match for the supporters,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports News as reported by Football Italia.
De Laurentiis made several changes this summer after parting company with Walter Mazzarri and having decided to sell Edinson Cavani to PSG.
However, he is delighted with the appointment of Rafa Benitez so far, and revealed the details on how the deal was concluded to sign Gonzalo Higuain, who was also of interest to Tuesday’s opponents.
“Rafa is a very nice man, he is always smiling, relaxed, so I enjoy seeing him. I hope it will be a very long relationship.
“We were in the mountains with the team and I asked my people, should we call Real Madrid? In 10 minutes it was done for €38m plus add-ons. Now call Higuain’s father and brother, who are his agents. The day after we went to Venice for eight hours closed in a room and did a deal. It was easy. I didn’t know Arsenal wanted him, as nobody told me. I’m sorry, Arsenal!”
The Napoli patron also revealed that Manchester City made a bid of around €35m for Cavani this summer, but he deemed it to be lower than their valuation as he wanted significant funds to replace the Uruguayan international.
As a result, PSG entered talked and met Cavani’s release clause fee, and Napoli have since gone on to strengthen their squad as a whole and have made an unbeaten start to Serie A after six games, sitting two points behind leaders Roma.
De Laurentiis also talked up the potential of one day exploring ownership in England, but he insisted that he was merely exploring the idea at this stage.
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