According to various sources, Barcelona are set to tempt Arsenal with a swap deal for Cesc Fabregas.
Reports in Spain suggest that France international, Eric Abidal, has rejected a new contract offer at Barca, and with only a year left to run on his Camp Nou deal, the 31-year-old could be used as a makeweight in the Fabregas transfer this summer. Another player that the Catalans could offer as part of the Cesc deal is 29-year-old Brazilian full-back Maxwell. He is believed to be the other alternative ‘carrot’ that could be dangled in front of the Gunners.
Personally, I don’t see Arsenal being tempted in a swap deal for either of these two players, so it would be very surprising to see anything develop with this. However, I do understand why the Spanish champions have singled out their left-backs.
Arsene Wenger wants to keep hold of Fabregas, and at the risk of a reader backlash, I strongly believe that its time for Cesc to depart the club.
I have heard nothing from the 24-year-old Spaniard stating that he would be happy to stay at Arsenal, and as such, he has not come out to defend the club with the things Barcelona have been saying/doing to lure him back home.
In my opinion, Arsenal need to be a lot more vocal towards Barcelona when it comes to transfer dealing between the two clubs. It’s about time that Barcelona start treating us with some respect.
We are not here as a feeder club for them or Man City, we have a voice and it’s about damn time that someone at our club stood up and told them simply to ‘Put up, or Shut Up!’.
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Wenger has come ouit today and said he is after one or two players and that he will do everything he can to keep Cesc and Nasri. Assume that Cesc rebukes every carrot thrown at him to remain, then Wenger has to decide is it worth trying to keep him here. Personally, i think that if Wenger was to accept £35m plus Abidail and Maxwell for Cesc, then spent the money he got for Clichy and Cesc, on Benzema and Taarabt, Nasri would be happy to stay. He is good friends with 3 of those players, they are all quality and i believe that those 4 arrivals along with Gervinho would make up for the departures of Cesc, Clichy and Bendtner. Our Defence and attack would without doubt be strengthened, our midfield IMO would be as good if not slightly better, as we would probably change the formation slightly. In addition to this we would still have our transfer kitty to look at other areas to strengthen.
Arsenal has never been a feeder club. This new dictum, originated from a certain Wright is misguided and illogical. What happened to the two we sold to Man City? One was past his best when he left, and the other was of a disruptive sort that has again proved Wenger right; Where is he now? What happened to those we sent to Baca? Henry was past his best, and Hleb? You only talk about being a feeder club when players such as Jack, Theo, Ramsay etc are sold to others, and this is not the case. So dont develop this weak mentality.
I wonder why Wenger always allow his best players contract reach last year has a good manager i don’t think that is the best thing for the club, if Nasri contract remain two to three year it would not be easy for any club to tap them remember Mathew Flaminy. Wenger should try to correct that in future.
James, well said. A very insightful comment. Fans should show some respect to Wenger. He knows what he is doing? Let other clubs be in debts and tilting towards bankruptcy but Wenger has refused to join the craze for big money transfers that do not guarantee trophies. For me, Arsenal has just been a bit unfortunate in the last 4 years.
You stated very valid points mate. Swap deal with the players stated is not an option at all. But, It was Wenger who took and takes advantage of Barcelona’s youth policy and tempts them for better opportunities. But you can’t deny that they want to go back and play with their childhood buddies if they are unhappy at their present club. It is Wenger’s job to keep them happy here and he failed to do so. Wenger has tried his best to keep his best player in the club but he has run out of options. He has no negotiating power left anymore. All he can do is delay the offers as much as he can and get the best deal out of them. The problem is that he wont spend the 40M that he might get from the Fabregas deal to proper use. He will follow his youth policy and frustrate us fans even more.