Catalan radio station Ona Fm claims that Barcelona wanted to bring Arsenal midfielder and Spanish international Cesc Fàbregas (21) to Barcelona last summer.
A few days before the start of the European championships in June, Barcelona president Joan Laporta, then Barcelona sports vice president Marc Ingla and one other unidentified Barcelona official met with the entourage of Cesc somewhere in the south of Catalonia to discuss a possible transfer.
Barcelona wanted a complete renewal of the squad and would have been willing to sell Barcelona midfielder Xavi (28) and Barcelona midfielder Eidur Gudjohnsen (29) in order to convince Cesc to join Barcelona in the summer.
Because the Barcelona fans wouldn't accept that Barcelona would pay a high transfer fee for a former youth player, Barcelona planned to include Cesc in a package deal with Alexander Hleb and to only make public one transfer fee for the two transfers. In the end, the Catalan player preferred to stay with Arsenal.
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Friday 31 October 2008
Barcelona wanted Cesc-Hleb package deal
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6 comments:
It would have been nice to get Cesc but to consider giving up Xavi. It's pragmatic by the board but upsetting nevertheless. Hope it wasn't true.
Is it me or does Cesc sound like a fair-weather fan? He wasn't interested in the new project but as soon as we start winning he's all blaugrana again.
Arsenal is not winning and doesn't look to be strong enough to win anything in the coming years, that's also an element I guess.
First he was happy to play with their first team, then he became a key player but he had that now, now he wants to start winning trophies.
bullshit, FCB would never sell Xavi!
Before the Euro, quite some Barcelona fans were having doubts on Xavi too. Now this has changed but before there was some feeling he wasn't "effective" enough, wasn't decisive, didn't score enough, etc.
Cesc wouldnt even make it into our team. He would be another really expensive bench warmer, which we dont need. Maybe in a few years when Xavi gets older we can look at Fabergas as a replacement, but right now i wouldnt swap Xavi for anyone. With Iniesta and Hleb in there as well i just couldnt see Cesc finding a regular spot right now or even in the near future. Let him improve his game for a few more years in the EPL then we can bring him here when he is ready.
I think Cesc also realized he wouldn't make it and that's why they tried to convince him by offering to sell Xavi.
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