Strike a deal! Wenger sees Rooney as the perfect link for Higuain at Arsenal

Arsenal are willing to follow up their prospective £22million signing of Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid with an audacious £20m bid for Wayne Rooney - with Arsene Wenger keen on playing Manchester United’s England star in an attacking midfield role behind the Argentina striker.

Higuain is the deal Arsenal are now most confident of securing, with Carlo Ancelotti’s long-awaited announcement as manager of the Spanish giants due to come tomorrow, leaving the club hopeful that the impasse will be broken as Real Madrid move for their own targets and confirm the player’s departure from the Bernabeu.

Highly rated: But Wayne Rooney's future remains uncertain

But it is the prospect of a move for Rooney and the revelation that Arsenal are not put off by his £220,000-a-week wages that represents a huge cultural shift at the Emirates, where Wenger has previously boasted of the club’s more ‘socialist’ wage structure.

Wenger does not see Rooney as a centre-forward but as a link man between midfield and Higuain — the position which the player himself says he prefers. But with Chelsea also sizing up a bid and United’s new manager David Moyes due to meet Rooney in the next two weeks, the prospect of him joining the north London club remains debatable.

United will not want to sell Rooney to Chelsea, who are likely to be their main title rivals, and the player remains hopeful that his meeting with Moyes will provide a fresh start at Old Trafford, with the club acknowledging that he never formally requested a transfer from United.

That is the issue that Rooney fears has soured his relationship with United’s fans. Rooney considered a meeting he had with previous manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of last season was a private discussion over his future prospects and where he fitted in at the club, and that while he might have expressed his frustrations, he was not explicitly asking to leave the club.

Arsenal certainly have the finances in place to attract premier targets but their problem will be convincing those targets that they are genuine trophy contenders.

Ambitious: Arsenal's Arsene Wenger is ready to join the race for Rooney

Ambitious: Carlo Ancelotti would like Rooney to follow him to Real Madrid

Arsenal have already missed out on their favoured names, Mario Goetze, who is joining Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan, whose representatives are in talks with Real Madrid.

The club are now looking at Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Lars Bender as an alternative and will press on to secure the signing of Higuain this week.

Higuain’s father Jorge said: ‘Nothing has been signed yet, but I can assure you there are advanced talks between the clubs.

‘We wouldn’t arrange any personal contract before the clubs agree for the transfer. I’m aware Arsenal has made a strong offer, as well as Juventus.’



The player, however, is understood to prefer Arsenal and Real Madrid believe the London club will make a higher bid than the Turin giants.

In Higuain, Arsenal have the chance to announce an early big-name signing. His Argentine father was a tough central defender for San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors and River Plate in the Eighties and Nineties before having a spell at Brest, in France, where Gonzalo was born.

Higuain, who grew up in Buenos Aires, joined Real Madrid in 2006, when Fabio Capello made him one of his first signings. A natural goalscorer, Higuain’s most successful season was in 2009-10, when he scored 29 goals. He scored 26 times in the club’s league title season of 2011-12 and 19 last season.