In a shocking revelation, Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas spoke to his manager Arsene Wenger that he wants to leave the club and join his boyhood club, Barcelona.
Over the past few days, speculations had been rife concerning Barcelona’s evergreen interest to sign back their star youth player. Arsenal bought Fabregas from Barcelona as a 16-year old for free, and though Cesc knows he owes Arsene his career, it would be in his best personal interests to go to a club going through a golden period.
Fabregas, who returned to London from Spain for treatment to his injured knee, said that he had thought long and hard about this decision, and that it was not an easy one to make.
Barcelona have a lot more to offer to the ambitious 23-year old, winning several trophies and titles, whereas Arsenal have not seen any silverware added to their cabinet for the last five years. Arsene Wenger was calm during the entire meeting, but asked Fabregas to stay on for one more season at Arsenal, where he has achieved a demi-god status. However, Cesc seems bent on making a switch this summer. Considering that even Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola mentioned that Barcelona are on a golden run, and that inspite of the club’s excellent youth ranks, it will not always be able to replicate this form, Cesc will be tempted to join them when they are at their best.
However, no one should doubt his dedication to Arsenal, as he has led from the front one multiple occasions this season and has been instrumental in keeping Arsenal in the Premier League title race for so long. He even appeared against Barcelona while still injured. Fabregas has appears for Arsenal 264 times over the last 7 years, since September 2003. He has scored 70 goals, but his reputation has been because of his defense-splitting passes that he uses to deadly effect.
Barcelona, on the verge of signing David Villa from Valencia, also confirmed that they were “very close to a deal” with Fabregas, and that it made matter easy, that both players “want to play for the club”. Rumors suggest that Barcelona will make a bid of 30 million pounds. The Catalans are also being linked to star Liverpool striker Fernando Torres, which if goes through, will see him paired with David Villa in an all-Spanish attack. Whether Arsenal accepts the deal is yet to be seen, and it is believed that they will not accept anything less that 40 million pounds for their star player and captain. However there have been quite a few reports linking Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Arsenal, and it seems that Barcelona might look to off-load the lanky forward in an effort to make the deal a little bearable. Ibrahimovic has not exactly rediscovered his scintillating form at Inter Milan, from where he made a switch only this season in a swap deal for Samuel Eto’o.
Arsenal fans will only cross their fingers and pray that their hero will not leave them this season, not when Arsenal looks as strong as ever to make (yet) another title bid.
No comments:
Post a Comment