Arsenal gossip

Whatever happens this is your typical Barca-doing-business scenario. First they get their captive newspapers to spread the word "Player X has been looking at housing in the area/Player X would love to join Barca/Player X has completed negociations with Barca for a 5-year deal, it's just a question of his club and Barca agreeing the transfer sum" or, of course with Cesc "Fabregas has told Wenger he wants to return to Barca - deal to be ratified before the World Cup/before the weekend (depending on which paper you read)".
Now I have no doubt at all that Cesc will return to Barca, but whether that is truly imminent or just Barca-talk I know not. The last actual quote from Cesc I recall was "I will return to Barca to play but I'm in no hurry, I'm happy in London playing for Arsenal". Whatever, the thing certainly has an impact on the player - 'unsettling' is the word.
Anything could happen - Wenger may have to 'persuade' Cesc to stay on for another year or two - or Cesc might truly have made up his mind he wants to leave now, it's up to the player but I wouldn't be surprised to hear him say, yet again, that his immediate future is with Arsenal. Failing that, the clubs have to agree a fee - and Arsenal have said they've not even considered putting a price on the player because he's on contract for another 4 years, which means any fee would be well above the ridiculous £30M suggested by Barca.

If this is true it'd be pretty difficult to refuse, given that he's already said that he'd like to return to Barca at some stage in his career. Effiectively - again, if it's true - they're offering twice his Arsenal salary, tax-free, with six months up-front. How many of us would refuse? And yet, Barca apparently don't want to offer more than £30M for him - so how serious are they, in fact? This could still just be the 'unsettling' tactic I referred to before.
The one thing I would say - playing in Spain for Barca would be a lot less of a challenge for the player than playing in the Premier for Arsenal. He'll certainly get lots of trophies, he'll be 'at home', the weather will be kinder and he'll pocket a whole lot more dosh - however, £80,000 a week is not to be sniffed at, if you like the challenge of English football, like the coach, like where you're living - I dunno, I suppose the money-plus going-home situation would be pretty difficult to turn down.
We'll see, in the next few days/weeks. I'd love him to stay for at least another season but would quite understand if he decides return-time is now - shame for us/Arsenal if that turns out to be the way the story ends.

Fabregas has seen three of his fellow colleagues have terrible injuries..

His boy town club is coincedently the most fashionable club playing the best football at the moment... He would fit in to there team perfectly.. no more visits to Stoke Blackbirn etc..

To be honest he would be crazy to turn the chance down..

ADRIAN_1976 wrote:Fabregas has seen three of his fellow colleagues have terrible injuries..

His boy town club is coincedently the most fashionable club playing the best football at the moment... He would fit in to there team perfectly.. no more visits to Stoke Blackbirn etc..

To be honest he would be crazy to turn the chance down..

Well yes but then again he knows there's work to be done at The Arsenal, work he signed on for with an eight-year contract, which has 4 years left. Nothing's changed at Barca since he left, they're still one of the top two clubs in Spain and they will still be in 2 or 3 years time - every year, Barca or Real Madrid. The only thing is the money right now, so yes, he may well choose to leave now or he might decide that his previous utterances remain valid, he's in no hurry to re-join his former club but he will one day. He's good enough to return today and will probably be an even better player in a couple of years time - it depends on how he feels.

ADRIAN_1976 wrote:Fabregas has seen three of his fellow colleagues have terrible injuries..His boy town club is coincedently the most fashionable club playing the best football at the moment... He would fit in to there team perfectly.. no more visits to Stoke Blackbirn etc..

To be honest he would be crazy to turn the chance down..

You're right Ades about the injuries.
There is a lot less clogging in La Liga. I'm sure that's a consideration.
I hope he gives us another season, he's a great player and there's more to come.
The problem is in the PL, if you have one player who's really important to the side he becomes a target and this Arsenal side has no 'protectors'.
It's easy money in Barcelona, in comparison.
My fingers, toes and everything else is crossed though.

Nigerian billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote could be poised to complicate Arsenal's ownership even further. Dangote is believed to be interested in buying Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith's 16% stake in the club to join Uzbeki tycoon Alisher Usmanov and American businessman Stan Kroenke as a big shareholder.
Full story: Daily Mirror
Barcelona's pursuit of Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas has been aided by the willingness of the Spanish FA to let the Spanish Champions conduct negotiations with the midfielder during the build-up to the World Cup.
Full story: Daily Mail
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is set to reignite his interest in Paris St Germain's French Under 21 captain Mamadou Sakho this summer.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Nigerians are notoriously dodgy. It probably stems from him sending an email to them asking if they would like to hold onto £100m for two weeks for him, all he needed was thier bank account details to transfer the monies.

Avfc_4eva_Sotc wrote:Nigerians are notoriously dodgy. It probably stems from him sending an email to them asking if they would like to hold onto £100m for two weeks for him, all he needed was thier bank account details to transfer the monies.

I had this exact conversation this morning with a Gooner mate at work!

Mate of mine who used to be a Mortgage underwriter for Natwest, said that it was company policy that any applications recieved where the applicant was nigerian would be automatically sent to the fraud department. And they would always turn out to be dodgy, they had a women once pretending to be a princess.

Avfc_4eva_Sotc wrote:Mate of mine who used to be a Mortgage underwriter for Natwest, said that it was company policy that any applications recieved where the applicant was nigerian would be automatically sent to the fraud department. And they would always turn out to be dodgy, they had a women once pretending to be a princess.

I can believe that.

I've won about £70m on the Irish and Nigerian lotteries.

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I've won about £70m on the Irish and Nigerian lotteries.

I´ve just sent off a copy of that unsolicited quote to the DHSS

Arsenal have slapped an £80m price tag on captain and midfielder Cesc Fabregas, which is more than double what Spanish giants Barcelona were hoping to pay for the Spanish international.
Full story: The Sun
Arsenal are keeping tabs on Valencia's 15-year-old striker Francisco Alcacer.
Full story: Daily Mirror
The Gunners also want to buy Bolton defender Gary Cahill this summer but have been told it will cost them £14m.
Full story: The Sun
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger made a last-ditch effort to keep captain Cesc Fabregas by phoning the midfielder before he joined up with the Spain World Cup squad. Fabregas is wanted by Barcelona.
Full story: Daily Mirror
Another man who thinks Fabregas should remain at the Emirates is Belarusian midfielder Alexander Hleb, who left Arsenal to join Barcelona in 2008 but has struggled in Spain. "If Arsene Wenger keeps the side together, they can really go far next year," said Hleb.
Full story: The Sun

jpr60 wrote:Whatever happens this is your typical Barca-doing-business scenario. First they get their captive newspapers to spread the word "Player X has been looking at housing in the area/Player X would love to join Barca/Player X has completed negociations with Barca for a 5-year deal, it's just a question of his club and Barca agreeing the transfer sum" or, of course with Cesc "Fabregas has told Wenger he wants to return to Barca - deal to be ratified before the World Cup/before the weekend (depending on which paper you read)".
Now I have no doubt at all that Cesc will return to Barca, but whether that is truly imminent or just Barca-talk I know not. The last actual quote from Cesc I recall was "I will return to Barca to play but I'm in no hurry, I'm happy in London playing for Arsenal". Whatever, the thing certainly has an impact on the player - 'unsettling' is the word.
Anything could happen - Wenger may have to 'persuade' Cesc to stay on for another year or two - or Cesc might truly have made up his mind he wants to leave now, it's up to the player but I wouldn't be surprised to hear him say, yet again, that his immediate future is with Arsenal. Failing that, the clubs have to agree a fee - and Arsenal have said they've not even considered putting a price on the player because he's on contract for another 4 years, which means any fee would be well above the ridiculous £30M suggested by Barca.

Gordon-Bennett - the've got his Dad in the papers now saying his son has made up his mind to leave -yet Barca have still to approach Arsenal direct, these are sad MFs and need to be taught a lesson.

think cesc is on his way back to barca.. Shame really he is a great player.

It seems to me that a lot of the better players are going to the sun and surf in Spain. I guess its down to the higher tax and weak pound.

FrenchSpur wrote:think cesc is on his way back to barca.. Shame really he is a great player.

It seems to me that a lot of the better players are going to the sun and surf in Spain. I guess its down to the higher tax and weak pound.

They're making a feck up then as the tax rates in Spain are being hiked and the €uro is diving.

jak wrote:

FrenchSpur wrote:think cesc is on his way back to barca.. Shame really he is a great player.

It seems to me that a lot of the better players are going to the sun and surf in Spain. I guess its down to the higher tax and weak pound.

They're making a feck up then as the tax rates in Spain are being hiked and the €uro is diving.

There just seems to be a lot of money suddenly available over in sunny Spain.

A lot of the English teams seem to be a bit short of cash. Liverpool being a case in point

As Arsenal have politely told Barca to "do one" regarding their (finally) official approach for Captain Cesc we may assume that will be the end of the story, eh? You know, Barca said if Arsenal didn't want it to happen they'd walk away, eh? EH? Oh!