I wanna tell you a story..........

Once upon a time there was an important manager at a famous football club who had turned a young talented player into a world-class star, mading him captain and building his team around him. Half-way through his contract, the captain decided it was time to return home, far across the sea, to his country of birth, to play for his home club.
There followed much pulling of hair, sobs of distress and huge disappointment but the manager said "Very well, Young Man, you shall have your wish but you must leave everything to me", to which his captain replied, gratefully, that he entrusted his future to his manager's word.
Lo and behold, the manager made a deal with a local fast-and-loose Jack-The-Lad to replace his captain, on the understanding that nothing be said until he had handled the return of his captain to his land of birth. And so, it was done. Whilst rejecting poultry bids for his captain from his home club, the manager awaited the right moment, indeed the right bid, being twice the original sum offered, then accepted and waved a fond "Farewell" to his captain, leaving just enough time to count out the sacks of gold bars received in exchange whilst whispering, sadly "Yet another fine profit from Spain, one from Real Madrid with the errant Anelka and now from Barcelona with our beloved captain who, I believe, like Dick Whittington, will return again, one fine day".
THE END

jpr60 wrote:Once upon a time there was an important manager at a famous football club who had turned a young talented player into a world-class star, mading him captain and building his team around him. Half-way through his contract, the captain decided it was time to return home, far across the sea, to his country of birth, to play for his home club.
There followed much pulling of hair, sobs of distress and huge disappointment but the manager said "Very well, Young Man, you shall have your wish but you must leave everything to me", to which his captain replied, gratefully, that he entrusted his future to his manager's word.
Lo and behold, the manager made a deal with a local fast-and-loose Jack-The-Lad to replace his captain, on the understanding that nothing be said until he had handled the return of his captain to his land of birth. And so, it was done. Whilst rejecting poultry bids for his captain from his home club, the manager awaited the right moment, indeed the right bid, being twice the original sum offered, then accepted and waved a fond "Farewell" to his captain, leaving just enough time to count out the sacks of gold bars received in exchange whilst whispering, sadly "Yet another fine profit from Spain, one from Real Madrid with the errant Anelka and now from Barcelona with our beloved captain who, I believe, like Dick Whittington, will return again, one fine day".
THE END

Poultry? That's fowl isn't it?

jak wrote:

jpr60 wrote:Once upon a time there was an important manager at a famous football club who had turned a young talented player into a world-class star, mading him captain and building his team around him. Half-way through his contract, the captain decided it was time to return home, far across the sea, to his country of birth, to play for his home club.
There followed much pulling of hair, sobs of distress and huge disappointment but the manager said "Very well, Young Man, you shall have your wish but you must leave everything to me", to which his captain replied, gratefully, that he entrusted his future to his manager's word.
Lo and behold, the manager made a deal with a local fast-and-loose Jack-The-Lad to replace his captain, on the understanding that nothing be said until he had handled the return of his captain to his land of birth. And so, it was done. Whilst rejecting poultry bids for his captain from his home club, the manager awaited the right moment, indeed the right bid, being twice the original sum offered, then accepted and waved a fond "Farewell" to his captain, leaving just enough time to count out the sacks of gold bars received in exchange whilst whispering, sadly "Yet another fine profit from Spain, one from Real Madrid with the errant Anelka and now from Barcelona with our beloved captain who, I believe, like Dick Whittington, will return again, one fine day".
THE END

Poultry? That's fowl isn't it?

Yep - deff red card situation there

This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

jak wrote:

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

What do you reckon Arsenal will settle for, must be a figure they have in mind, or is it a question that they are playing the delay card thinking if we do this enough they may just decide to go away.

Malachite wrote:

jak wrote:

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

What do you reckon Arsenal will settle for, must be a figure they have in mind, or is it a question that they are playing the delay card thinking if we do this enough they may just decide to go away.

I reckon a lot depends on just how much Fabregas wants to return to Spain now. It's always been understood he'll go back but, upon signing an 8-year deal we'd have hoped he'd have been around for longer than the 4 years. If the player truly wants out now there's not much point in insisting he sees out his contract because we'd not have a player playing to his capacity, especially as he's captain. My guess is, if he wants to leave now Wenger will hold out for a proper offer (£50-60M), if he's happy to stay at the club another year or two, all well and good. I'd prefer the latter - it's not the money we need, it's the player.

jpr60 wrote:

Malachite wrote:

jak wrote:

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

What do you reckon Arsenal will settle for, must be a figure they have in mind, or is it a question that they are playing the delay card thinking if we do this enough they may just decide to go away.

I reckon a lot depends on just how much Fabregas wants to return to Spain now. It's always been understood he'll go back but, upon signing an 8-year deal we'd have hoped he'd have been around for longer than the 4 years. If the player truly wants out now there's not much point in insisting he sees out his contract because we'd not have a player playing to his capacity, especially as he's captain. My guess is, if he wants to leave now Wenger will hold out for a proper offer (£50-60M), if he's happy to stay at the club another year or two, all well and good. I'd prefer the latter - it's not the money we need, it's the player.

I couldn't have said it better old chap. Then, great minds do tend to think alike.

jak wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

Malachite wrote:

jak wrote:

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

What do you reckon Arsenal will settle for, must be a figure they have in mind, or is it a question that they are playing the delay card thinking if we do this enough they may just decide to go away.

I reckon a lot depends on just how much Fabregas wants to return to Spain now. It's always been understood he'll go back but, upon signing an 8-year deal we'd have hoped he'd have been around for longer than the 4 years. If the player truly wants out now there's not much point in insisting he sees out his contract because we'd not have a player playing to his capacity, especially as he's captain. My guess is, if he wants to leave now Wenger will hold out for a proper offer (£50-60M), if he's happy to stay at the club another year or two, all well and good. I'd prefer the latter - it's not the money we need, it's the player.

I couldn't have said it better old chap. Then, great minds do tend to think alike.

Seems OAP minds think alike as well at times.

Fabregas will probably go for about £40-£45m IMHO

jpr60 wrote:

Malachite wrote:

jak wrote:

Malachite wrote:This summers soap.

We always seem to get one.

What surprises me is that Barca don't enforce a deadline, If Spain win the world cup and Cesc plays a major part in that win his price will soar which of course may well be the road Arsenal are going down.

The road Arsenal's going down is that Barcelona are not going to get him for 30M, so they can feck off till they get their head into gear. Quite right too!!!

What do you reckon Arsenal will settle for, must be a figure they have in mind, or is it a question that they are playing the delay card thinking if we do this enough they may just decide to go away.

I reckon a lot depends on just how much Fabregas wants to return to Spain now. It's always been understood he'll go back but, upon signing an 8-year deal we'd have hoped he'd have been around for longer than the 4 years. If the player truly wants out now there's not much point in insisting he sees out his contract because we'd not have a player playing to his capacity, especially as he's captain. My guess is, if he wants to leave now Wenger will hold out for a proper offer (£50-60M), if he's happy to stay at the club another year or two, all well and good. I'd prefer the latter - it's not the money we need, it's the player.

Just a hunch but i reckon he will stay, doesn't seem the same impetus to this on-going transfer in comparison to other players and clubs previously, that may be the world cup getting in the way, I would also have thought that Barca would have wanted to get this sorted before the world cup, Villa have a similar situation with Milner, the longer we hold of the better chance we have of keeping him, although if the press are to be believed his statement of being flattered by the Man City interest doesn't bode well.

The press are most certainly not to be believed.
My man Arseblog has a great rant at the press today, saying that all they do in this country is copy what they read elsewhere (e.g Spain - the Fabregas story), add a little something then call it a scoop. He has an excellent point, saying that instead of running storys that are designed to weaken the English Premier League (e.g. Henry, Vieira, Ronaldo and now Fabregas to go abroad) they should be villifying the tactics used by the Spaniards (tapping up players through releases in the 'captive' Spanish press or comments made by home players) which are totally against the rules of the UEFA/FIFA transfer process. No, instead, whilst boasting on the one hand about how great the Premier League is the English press just add weight to the attempts made to tempt players away. Cheap 'news' to sell newspapers!