Spurs and Arsenal Alerted as Madrid Confirm Forward Will Leave

Real Madrid general manager Jose Angel Sanchez has confirmed that Gonzalo Higuain will leave the club at the end of the season.

The 25-year-old is in his seventh season with the Spanish side and has scored 14 league goals, despite competing with Karim Benzema for a starting berth as Madrid's sole central striker.

Higuain has been strongly linked with a move to the Premier League for some time, with Metro reporting that Tottenham and north London rivals Arsenal were both keen to secure his signature at the end of the season.

Tottenham have only two senior strikers in their squad, and with Emmanuel Adebayor contributing just two league goals this season, there has been plenty of speculation that they will look to add another forward in the summer.

They did look to sign Brazilian striker Leandro Damiao during the January transfer window but after this deal failed to materialise, it was assumed that manager Andre Villas-Boas would reassess his options once he knew whether Tottenham would be in the Champions League next season.

Higuain has plenty of experience in the European competition and has enjoyed great success at the Bernebeu, winning three league titles and the Copa del Rey, but it seems he will now be allowed to leave.

"In a great club like Real, we believe we need two number nines of a high level," Sanchez told L'Equipe. "We have Benzema and Higuain, Higuain will leave, Benzema will stay and two others will come."

Arsenal have also previously been linked with the Argentina international and manager Arsene Wenger may well be interested to hear that the striker will be available in the summer.

Despite signing Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud at the start of the campaign, there is a still a feeling that Arsenal will need to add more firepower to their squad in order to compete with the two Manchester clubs who have a wealth of attacking talent.

Madrid signed Higuain from River Plate for €13million back in December 2006 but will certainly demand a significantly higher amount after seeing him score more than 100 league goals in his seven years at the club.