[2008] Difficult negotiations with Arsenal on Hleb

this post was published exactly one year ago:


Several sources in England and Spain report that the negotiations, started on Tuesday, between Arsenal and Barcelona on the transfer of Arsenal midfielder and Belarussian international Alexander Hleb (27) are not advancing as well as expected before by Barcelona.

British tabloid The Daily Mirror claims that Barcelona launched a first bid of 10 million euro° which is far below what Arsenal would want to receive for Hleb.

British tabloid The Daily Star claims that Arsenal is asking at this moment 25 million euro° and more concretely translated this in demanding 5 million euro° plus Barcelona defensive midfielder and Ivory Coast international Yaya Touré (25) in exchange.

Barcelona would have rejected the option to include Touré in the deal (read more here). Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain is quoted by the tabloid as saying: "We want Yaya to stay with us and he is not on the market. Guardiola considers him to be an important player in his new project." Catalan sports paper Sport confirms that this plan has clearly been rejected by Barcelona.

Although Bayern Munich would be preparing a 20 million euro° bid, Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo says that Barcelona is calm and patient because they already have a personal deal with Hleb (read more here). And the experience shows that a player normally ends up playing with the team of his choice.

Hleb said earlier this week in an interview with German sports magazine Kicker that the rumours about his future are making him nervous: "All that paper talk is annoying. I have not signed anything with Bayern or Barcelona or any other club for that matter. There's so much speculation and so much talking. While I just want some peace and time to sit down with my closest friend and agent Niki Spilevski to make up my mind about my future."

Read more 12 June 2008 news:
Pirlo in case Hleb fails
Tough and expensive Villa race coming up
Scolari will take Deco with him to Chelsea
Portsmouth manager confirms Gudjohnsen interest