Barcelona president Sandro Russell rules out Cesc Fabregas’ purchase at Arsenal’s price
Barcelona President Sandro Russell has reiterated that his club would not pay over the odds to secure Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas’ services.
Arsenal are adamant over the 44-million-pound asking fee for Fabregas and insist that they will not take a penny less from it. Fabregas has made his wish clear to play for Barcelona at one point in his career and the last couple of seasons have seen him
being heavily linked for a move to the club.
Fabregas started his youth career from Barcelona’s academy and the Arsenal scouts snapped him as a 16-year-old under the noses of the Catalans in 2003. Since moving to London, Fabregas has developed himself as one of the world’s best central midfielders.
Russell believes that at this price tag, the club will be forced to look elsewhere and this will deal will not go through.
“Barca is not disposed to pay €50m (£43.9m) for Cesc Fabregas next summer. That is decided and, although Guardiola demands this player, we will not pay this amount. It is impossible due to a simple reason. In football, prices are reduced each year and, if
we offered Arsenal €40m (£35.1m) for Cesc last summer, €50m is now impossible,” said Russell.
Russell admitted that if the club manager Josep Guardiola insists in getting the player, then he is willing to negotiate the price with the Gunners but they will have to get realistic.
Fabregas was made the skipper of the Arsenal side in November 2008 and since then he has retained the captaincy armband. The 23-year-old is the pivot around which the Arsenal side revolves and Arsene Wenger would never want to see him leaving the club. Although
Fabregas has huge respect for Wenger but his desire to return to the Camp Nou might pave way to a deal soon.
Barcelona and Arsenal have not had a memorable time in exchanging players in the past and the Gunners are constantly being accused of poaching high-profile talent from Barcelona’s youth setup.
A recent Barcelona youth product Jon Toral was signed by Arsenal for a minimal fee of 296,000 pounds and Russell has termed it as an immoral move by the North London side.
“Our relationship with Arsenal is not good. The Toral issue has not pleased us,” he said.
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