By Fab4.
It’s been a relatively quiet few days on the Cesc Fabregas transfer front as the start of the World Cup took centre stage. But Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has broken the silence by once again stating that they have no intention in selling their captain, whilst denying he has held talks with Fabregas about his future.
Fabregas has been heavily linked with a move back to Barcelona with the Spanish giants having their first formal offer, believed to be £29m, turned down. Gunners boss Wenger feels he doesn’t have to respond to speculation about Fabregas as Arsenal are not interested in doing a deal. Wenger went on to confirm he had talked with Fabregas several times recently, but they never discussed the players future.
“I don’t need to talk about Cesc,” said Wenger. “He has a deal with Arsenal and we don’t want to sell him.
“I’ve spoken with Fabregas many times – as with all the players in the World Cup – but never about his future.”
Arsenal have remained dignified in their silence over the Fabregas-to-Barcelona saga, a polar opposite to the despicable public pursuit the Catalans have adopted, and Arsene’s declaration that they don’t want to sell comes as no surprise. What does raise the eyebrows slightly is his claim that he hasn’t held talks with Cesc about his future. Until now, it has been widely accepted that during an ’emotional heart-to-heart’ meeting Fabregas told Wenger he wanted to leave Arsenal and join Barcelona, despite Arsene’s attempts to persuade him to stay. But Wenger’s claim has to put some doubt as to whether this meeting went as the media would have us believe.
Barcelona have done all they can to confirm these reports by constantly referring to the fact that ‘the player has expressed his desire to join us’. But neither Cesc nor Arsenal have actually confirmed that he asked to leave this summer. Cesc said he wanted to join Barcelona ‘one-day’ but didn’t know when the transfer would happen as he was happy at Arsenal, now Arsene is claiming he hasn’t talked about Cesc’s future with him.
I’m sure Cesc and Arsene did meet, but what exactly was discussed? Transfer plans? Cesc’s future? The World Cup? Are Wenger’s comments all part of the transfer negotiations, or have we all fallen for another ‘sources close to the deal’ trick? The fact is nobody will ever know the intimate details apart from the two men that were there and Fabregas will remain an Arsenal player until Barcelona come in with a sensible offer of over £45m, at which time Arsenal will decide if it’s time to sell or not.
