Going all in: How Higuain's arrival ushers in a new era for Juventus

Juventus is done investing in the future.

It's spent the past six years doing exactly that - cutting losses, paying off construction costs, and pledging millions of euros to development projects.

The goal before winning five consecutive Serie A titles was about achieving, as president Andrea Agnelli said in October 2013, financial stability, while also being competitive on the pitch.

That has all happened, and the only missing piece is the Champions League.

The time to win is now. Juventus indicated as much by signing Gonzalo Higuain from direct rival Napoli for €90 million on Tuesday, the third-highest transfer fee of all-time. Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale cost more, and both of those moves transformed Real Madrid.

Related: Juventus announces €90M Higuain signing; 3rd-most expensive transfer ever

So too has Higuain changed Juventus.

Apart from his gargantuan release clause, the Argentina international will reportedly pull in €7 million per season - €3.5 million more than anyone else on the squad. Higuain dramatically alters the wage structure - to the point where it now looks unsustainable - but winning everything costs money.

Higuain's coming off a record-breaking campaign in which he scored 36 Serie A goals for Napoli. In three years in southern Italy, he has turned into one of Europe's elite centre-forwards. Only Robert Lewandowski, Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Sergio Aguero rival him in the position - at least in club football. Higuain's troubles with his country are well-documented, but he showed last year with the Partenopei he's capable of producing at a prolific rate.

Moving for Higuain is very much about the here and now. At 28 years old, he doesn't have much resale value. Juventus will never be able to sell him anywhere near the €90-million mark. It wants his goals, and for the Champions League.

It's not like Juventus saved everything for Higuain, either. He's the club's fifth signing of the summer after Miralem Pjanic, Dani Alves, Medhi Benatia, and Marko Pjaca. On paper, Massimiliano Allegri's side is one of the three best on the continent. Juve could have chased other targets for less money - N'Golo Kante being one of them - but decided a brutal finisher would help it the reach the next level.

The Bianconeri need not worry about Serie A anymore. It's theirs to win for a sixth season. They stole the best players from Roma and Napoli, and now they're gunning for European supremacy. Over the past couple of months, Juventus has flexed its financial muscles in the face of Europe's juggernauts - the secret code for entry into the game's elite - and is now one of them.

Paul Pogba's potential €120-million move to Manchester United isn't even meant to subsidise Higuain's transfer fee, according to Sky Sport's Gianluca Di Marzio. Juventus has managed to stand on its own feet and demand whatever it likes for its prized Frenchman without having to worry about scraping together the funds for its new signing.

To be collected over two years, the €90-million payment isn't as much of a big deal as it first seems. Juventus has already received €30 million from Madrid for Alvaro Morata, and it could raise €70 million or so more by selling bit-part players Simone Zaza, Hernanes, Mario Lemina, Roberto Pereyra, and Stefano Sturaro.

It wasn't always like this. There was a time when Juventus simply couldn't spend big amounts on any one player. It had to pay off a €122-million bill for the construction of Juventus Stadium - one of the only club-owned arenas in Italian football - and in 2010-11, it was €94 million in debt.

General manager and CEO Giuseppe Marotta made shrewd signings to ensure Juventus remained competitive while adjusting to a new economic climate. Marotta convinced Andrea Pirlo to arrive on a free transfer, signed Carlos Tevez for a relatively modest €9-million figure, and added Arturo Vidal for just a little bit more than that. Those three created a foundation that would launch multiple title-winning campaigns.

Neither of them remain, but they're the legacy of this Juventus side.

As the club became a more attractive destination, the sponsorships improved. It signed an agreement with Jeep worth €17 million a season, and ditched Nike for Adidas in a deal worth €29.3 million a year.

Marotta and Agnelli weren't afraid to let star names go, because new ones were always coming in. They were doing what Sir Alex Ferguson did so well in his 27 years at Manchester United: fostering a winning team on the go. Some young players came and went - and for a profit. A free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain in 2014, Kingsley Coman grew unhappy with life in Turin, but he still netted the Serie A champion a potential €28-million sum from Bayern Munich.

Gate receipts also raised cash, to the tune of €51.4 million during the 2014-15 season, according to Deloitte. Despite Juventus Stadium's smaller 40,000-seat capacity, the team is able to squeeze maximum profits out of matchday revenue. Unlike AC Milan and Inter, who pay to rent out the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Juventus takes 100 percent of what it earns. With an average attendance of 38,633 ticket holders last season, the club only continues to make improvements.

Eventually the red turned into black as well. It turned its first profit in six years in 2015, and its revenue broke the €300-million mark for the first time. All those construction costs were paid.

The time for budgeting is now over.

Juventus saw a chance to snatch Higuain for what many would consider a prohibitive price. Many more see it as a risky investment. But that misses the point. The Bianconeri are now bearing the fruits of years of resourceful planning. They activated Higuain's release clause because they could. That's a success in and of itself, what with Financial Fair Play regulations to follow too.

Very little on the transfer market has fixed values. A player is worth as much as a club's willing to pay for him. In this case, Juventus spent a set premium to get a striker who takes a lot of shots and guarantees goals. It will have the two best scorers in Serie A, along with Paulo Dybala, who shares a friendship with his compatriot.

The money could establish an unsustainable precedent for Juventus, but the fee only matters if this team doesn't win it all.