Sunday 30 August 2009

Arsenal fearing to lose Cesc on the cheap

Asked about the rumours linking Arsenal midfielder and Spain international Cesc Fabregas (22) with a move to Barcelona (read more here), Barcelona president Joan Laporta is quoted by British tabloid The Daily Mail as saying that his club stays interested in the player:

"I apologise if I bothered Mr Wenger, because I respect him very highly and the job he is doing. But he knows perfectly that the case of Cesc Fabregas is special. He is a Catalan player from our youth team and it is not a secret that we love this player.

We know that he is one of the flagships of Arsenal and we respect Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal and, of course, Arsene Wenger. I don't want to bother Mr Wenger because I respect his job very much."

The tabloid claims that Cesc could become a key figure Barcelona's presidential elections next year with several possible candidates wanting to link up with the Catalan midfielder and that the English Premier League club is starting to get worried.

The Daily Mail reports that Wenger last year insisted that Arsenal needed to tie Cesc down to a long-term contract by the summer of 2009, because he feared the effect of FIFA's transfer rule, Article 17, which states that a player who has served more than three years on his contract can resign from his club by simply paying up the value of his contract.

With Cesc having signed his most recent contract in October 2006, he will be free to buy out the remaining four years of his contract, which would amount to around 18 million euros in the transfer window of January 2010. Wenger reportedly finds the situation infuriating and a recipe for instability.

Read more:
Wenger dismisses new Fabregas rumours
Arsenal Preparing to Offer Cesc Raise
Cesc wants Barcelona to keep on trying

28 comments:

Gelson said...

18 million??!?!?thank god we didnt get him this summer.

Nicholas Gaffney said...

so if we gave Cesc 18 million could he buy his way out of Arsenal?

Sachincule said...

i told u guys before itself that there was a clause in cesc contract, but i was wrong in its valuation because i said it as 25 mill but it turned out to be 18 :p... anyways i don't we will need him because Thiago alcantara is better than him and i hope he will get his chances this season to prove it :-)

tero said...

I also prefer thiago and dos santos over cesc,I just hope they get more chances

Marc4barca said...

wow a few games form the youth players and they are better than cesc who has been playing first team football in england for 6 years?? really guys, think more before you say such nonsense. cesc is 4 times the footballer dos santos and thiago are.

barcaISbest said...

those comments are completely absurd...do u think pep would allow any player that could play at a level to be the captain of a big 4 english squad play in the youth team??? its completely insane to think jds or thiago are better than cesc...cesc is the man we need to provide midefield cover for when xavi retires...gettin him in january sounds perfect to me...i hope we make this happen

Unknown said...

you guys might be surprised, but i really think Thiago is way better than Cesc in terms of skills, passing and versatility. Cesc is better that he has experience and played tough games in EPL and CL. this may sound a little strange and exaggerated but since the time i have started supporting Barca, way more than 15 years, i have not been impressed by a football player the way Thiago impressed me.
I hope this blog is still alive after 2 or 3 years,and mark my word, Barca future is Thiago.if he improves and keeps maturing, he will run the show of the midfield and the squad of barca.

hieifcb said...

ok I seriously didnt understand anything of the 2nd part... is this article 17, the new rules made by FIFA?

well i dnt understand anything, but i like the sound... 18m Cesc WHOA =D

barcaISbest said...

well i respect that especially b/c youve been around for a while...but i cant (and im sure u cant either) say that RIGHT NOW thiago is a better option in midfield than cesc...hes a great player that has alot more to do and i believe cesc still has room for improvement which would be best done at the club that raised him...BARCA!!!!

Anonymous said...

I read abount that Article 17 when the Ribery-Thing was on the table. Several sources said that no club will use this. some kind of gentlemens agreement.

I do not see us beeing clasless and beeing the frist big club that uses that.

Anonymous said...

We won't buy him using Article-17. This would open hell's gates. The market would be much crazier than this year. Buyout clauses would mean nothing. (For example: Messi could leave for 40m, not 300m)

Ramzi said...

There is an unwritten agreement between clubs that they may not get advantage, or encourage players to get advantage of this Article.

It may help though to pull the player's price down a bit, but not that much.

Anonymous said...

goal bias yet again. Same interview with Laporta but on goal, they made it sound like Laporta is arrogant and disrespectful! They excluded many part of the interview, especially when Laporta says he respects Wenger!!!

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/08/30/1469872/barcelona-love-arsenal-captain-cesc-fabregas-joan-laporta

Mihai Martin said...

Yeah, and Arsenal's Captain, raised by our club won't and SHOULD not pull that clause.

We're mes que un club that raises mes que players. We raise Messis (people who turn down blank cheques), not Cashley Coles.

NC4Barca said...

I hope Cesc comes to Barca..He is the only one who can replace Xavi, who is turning 30 soon. He is the direct heir to Xavi..I hope he doesnt sign any new contract with Arsenal, and we can get him for 18mn..I dont think any of our youth products are even 10% nearer to Cesc. Cesc is the captain of Arsenal and he is only 22yrs. So you can understand the guy's capabilites and talent!! So we are not even in a position to compare our youth players with Cesc.

Martin Engelin said...

Well even if we won't use article 17, his price will be much lower. Will Arsenal say that they won't accept any offer below 45m, when they know any club could buy him for 18m? NO.

About JDS and Thiago. I really think they both will become great players. Buying Cesc doesn't have to change that. They will still be a big part of the team. Cesc is the perfect option for replacing Xavi, when x is too old. Until then, Fab and xavi can play with eachother on the midfield, moving iniesta up on the flank, to Henrys position.

Atleast one of the two youngsters will be ready when Xavi decides to leave. If not Iniesta is always available to back them up.

Unknown said...

Don't be surprised if Arsenal ask for 1 or 2 of our players plus cash in exchange for Cesc. Knowing Wenger, I won't be surprised if he'll ask for Thiago or JDS, and maybe Muniesa or Fontas. He knows he can work with these youths and maybe sell them back to Barca in the future for a profit even if no one else would.

Anonymous said...

Marc4barca: well, of course they are both not better now. But they can be and they deserve a chance. Why to "kill" two young promising players which have patience and wait for their chance with buying Fabregas who left few years ago?

Chosing between Thiago who was refusing Chelsea and his dream is to play for Barca and between Cesc who left Barca at the age of 16 is easy for me...

Dvir said...

18M ? Great deal

Up yours, Wenger said...

hehe after the way cesc went to arsenal, I think we should definitely encourage him to use this clause :D Wenger-thief

PS I don't want cesc in Barca at all

TengkuAmir10 said...

Hey pep,i thought you can use article 17 only if you're 25 years++? anyway,if we would get a chance to buy him,don't splash more than 10 bucks.i can donate 2 dollars. so in the end,we only used 8 bucks.

Dolce said...

Sadly there are some football idealists and socialists on this site who 1) oppose any superstar signings because we should save money all the time and they think that we must raise our all players 2) have a blind faith in youth players and think that their success is more important than Barca´s success. 3) claim that signing mediocre players is the best way to build the team because therefore there would be less ego clashes. 4) they dont care if Barca becomes trophyless team like Arsenal or Ajax as long as the team keeps playing beautiful football. 5) start to scream: "where we put our own juniors if X arrives?!" JDS and Thiago have made couple good passes and nice tricks in some friendly matches vs lowly teams so of course they are better than proven superstar like Cesc...

Anonymous said...

I think Cesc will be the perfect replacement for Xavi one day. He has a great future in front of him and I hope he will spend it in Barca.

Sachincule said...

OMG, i can't believe how many noobies im seeing in this blog...

@dolce
did anyone ever say they want to compromise on barca's trophies just because they want to grow youth?? NO. If u seem to think so then where did xavi, iniesta, messi, pique, puyol, valdes, bojan, pedro come from?? would we have won the treble without any of these players and by buying superstars like u seem to want?? NO. Who are the 3 best players in the world and where did they come from?? BARCA YOUTH.

i've been a die hard follower of Barca since 8 years now and believe nobody i reapeat nobody except iniesta has imoressed me so much in their debut as much as thiago did and about the small team friendly.. really?? since when did man city become small? last time checked they were the richest club in the world right now...

Just because cesc is a superstar dosen't mean he has to be better than thiago, right now he might be but i can bet my life that thiago will overtake him in the next 3 years... this is not fantasy football my friends

@marc4barca
stop deciding others posts as nonsense you are NOBODY to do that, everyone has their opinion and they are more than welcome to express it...

barca96 said...

quote downcast97
''this may sound a little strange and exaggerated but since the time i have started supporting Barca, way more than 15 years, i have not been impressed by a football player the way Thiago impressed me"
cmon man..are you saying that you were not as impressed with ronaldo, ronaldinho, rivaldo, messi, iniesta, xavi than you are with thiago?

btw we need cesc not just to replace xavi but to strengthen our midfield! bringing cesc in wont kill thiago and dos santos's chances as they can profit from it instead by learning from the superstars such as xavi, iniesta and cesc.
and plus, they will only be what, 19next year, way too young to see him as a replacement for xavi.it will burden them.
better to let them develop slowly..

COGooner said...

Fabregas will definitely move to Barca eventually, but I think it won't happen until, at the earliest, after next season. No chance he will move mid-season, he has too much respect for Wenger to do that.

My guess is that he'll sign a new contract with Arsenal this season or this summer (thus postponing transfer rumors for a bit and ensuring Arsenal get a fair market price for him when he does move), stay at Arsenal for another season or two, and then move to Barca. By then he'll be 25 and Xavi will be on the wrong side of 30. Relax, you'll get him in his prime (25-30), but 'til then he's a Gunner.

Anonymous said...

ive alwyz thot of cesc 2 b xavi's heir...jus hope dat ven he leaves arsenal he dusnt end up @ madrid......his commnts about nt mindin playin dere kinda worried me..bt do thnk we'l gt him eventually.....

Anonymous said...

it is clear now after six tears at arsenal cesc really wants to go to barcelona not just for the football club but also because it is his home and where his family and heart is.
arsenal should let go he wont be happy any other way .

sting once sang the undying words "if you love someone SET THEM FREE".
question is : wenger do you love cesc enough to 'set him free'?

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