i've read somewhere that the departure was due to Higuain's frustration on what's going on in Madrid. Benzema was bought by Perez as part of his Galacticos project, and Higuain is not. Therefore there is a preference of Benzema over Higuain. When Bale came in, harder for Higuain to get into the team as he is deemed as 'outsider' of the Galacticos