Arsenal are set to lose £60 million duo by the weekend – Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona for £35 million and Samir Nasri has apparently told French team-mates that he is set to join Manchester City for an amount that has yet to be revealed, but it is thought to be in the region of £25 million.
Arsene Wenger promised Fabregas last summer that he would be granted his wish to return to Barcelona if he stayed for one more season at the Emirates, which he did.
With this ongoing transfer saga finally coming to an end, reports have suggested that the Arsenal captain has agreed to forego £880,000 for each of the five years of the contract that he has provisionally agreed with Barcelona in order to push through his move back to his boyhood club.
The European champions have included the £4.4 million total sum in their latest bid for Fabregas, which, including £5.25 million in add-ons, is worth £35.1 million in total – a fee well short of Arsenal’s £40m valuation of the player. However, an agreement has apparently been reached and it is understood that the move should be completed before the first-leg of Arsenal’s Champions League qualifier against Udinese next Tuesday.
A Catalan source was quoted on Goal.com saying:
‘We are close to a deal but we are not there yet. Fabregas is giving up €1m [£880,000] a year from his future earnings and putting it into Arsenal to make sure the deal happens.’
Surely if a player is willing to pay off such a large sum to ensure his transfer deal goes through it shows that his heart isn’t in the club anymore, right?
Fabregas and Nasri are expected to miss Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Newcastle tomorrow, while they both complete their respective deals.
Reports in France recently claimed that Nasri had already agreed terms on a three-year, £175,000-a-week deal, and a move to the Etihad Stadium could be completed within the next 48 hours. If this proves true, then the Frenchman could make his City debut against Swansea City on Monday night.
Hopefully this time Wenger will find a suitable replacement for Nasri. In my opinion, Juan Mata would be a great addition, should the Frenchman, who has refused to sign a new deal at the Emirates, leave to join former team-mate Gael Clichy at Manchester City. I believe now is the time to cash in on Nasri and reinvest the cash, rather than risk losing him on a free next summer.
If Fabregas does decide to leave – which I think is highly likely – then I believe Wenger will not need to buy in order to fill the gap, as we already have a ready-made replacement in Jack Wilshere.
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I am pissed off right now. I hope Fabregas gets syphilis from sitting on that dirty Barcelona bench and that Nasri never wins anything with CITY while the Arsenal wins trophies. These two C@nts are always injured and as our main players this may be one of the reasons why our club has not won anything since 05. If these 2 are transferred and Mr. Wenger does nt replace them with similar or better players this late into the window I am afraid that Mr. Wenger must go. I do not see the same thing happening anywhere else except here. Buy f69king MATA,a winger and a Centerback GOD D4MNIT !!! like DANN or CAHIll
If the duo go, there’ll be money to buy mata and samba.