Napoli target Higuain to replace Cavani

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, has confirmed that the Serie A club has opened negotiations with Real Madrid over Gonzalo Higuain, as they begin the search for Edinson Cavani’s replacement.

Cavani completed his £55million move to Paris Saint-Germain this week and Napoli are now trying to hijack Arsenal’s bid to buy Higuain and De Laurentiis claims the club has a budget of around £108million available for new boss Rafa Benitez, to strengthen the team.

He said: “It’s true that we’re negotiating for Gonzalo Higuain and Leandro Damiao.

“The money we got for (Edinson) Cavani was 64.5m euros and added to the 60m euros we had set aside for the transfer budget there will be 124.5m euros to carefully invest on Napoli.

“There are various names on the table, we’re assessing the situation.”