Some weeks back I touched on the subject of Barcelona and their pursuit of Cesc Fabregas. At that time I said that unless they were prepared to pay his full market value then no deal would take place. Arsenal still hold a strong hand – Fabregas has 5 years left on his current deal and Arsenal are not in any kind of financial position that necessitates a sale unless the price really is right.
On the other hand Barcelona’s finances are an absolute shambles. Sandro Rosell has inherited a great team from his old friend Joan Laporta but a club with a mountainous debt. Rosell talks of ‘cash flow tensions’, there are those who would suggest having to seek an emergency loan of €150m to cover unpaid wages to players and staff a little more serious than that.
As well as that there are concerns that the TV deal with Mediapro (Spanish clubs are free to negotiate their own broadcast deals unlike the collective arrangement in the Premier League) is in trouble as the company is in receivership. It’s hard to imagine that a team as successful and pretty to watch as Barcelona would have trouble finding a new partner but it’s another complication.
There’s been some money in through the sales of Yaya Toure to Man City (£24m) and Dmytro Chygrynskiy – although the sale of the Ukrainian back to Shaktar Donetsk has actually cost Barcelona €10m having paid €25m for him just last summer. Yet even City’s millions, a considerable percentage of which is sure to have been up front due to the Abu-Dhabi owners ability to pay that way instead of installments, made little impact. Barcelona went begging to the banks for money to pay their players. That is a club in real financial difficulty.
So, how on earth can they expect to persuade Arsenal to sell their prize asset? If they’re borrowing money just to keep things ticking over there’s simply no way they can afford the kind of transfer fee if would take to get Arsenal to even consider the offer.
Barcelona have known all along they simply couldn't afford the Fabregas fee
And there’s the other angle too – the player himself. It’s clear that Cesc Fabregas would like to go back to his former club. He sees his friends and former teammates playing beautiful football and winning trophies, at Arsenal the closest he’s come to a trophy since the FA Cup final in 2005 was the 2006 Champions League final in which defeat was inflicted by Barcelona. Since then they’ve never realistically challenged for the Premier League, just reached one domestic cup final and have been exposed in the last two seasons by Barcelona and Manchester United in the latter stages of the Champions League.
As well as that any young man who lives abroad for a time gets the itch to move home, to friends, family and familiar surroundings. You can be sure that Barcelona, from players to officials, chairmen and former chairmen, have filled his head with wondrous tales of how great life would be. And I’m sure it would. But are they being fair to Cesc Fabregas?
It’s hardly as if these financial issues have cropped up overnight. Before he took charge Rosell was urging caution about the situation and the club’s spending. Through making their interest so very public Barcelona sought to destabilise Fabregas at Arsenal. It’s a well-worn tactic. If they could drive a wedge between the player and the club and/or the fans then it makes their life easier and a deal at a lower price is inevitable.
Whatever his desires though, Cesc Fabregas has great respect for Arsenal, Arsene Wenger and most of all the Arsenal fans with whom he has a real connection. If he’d agitated and spoken in public about his desire to leave North London Barcelona would have been sitting pretty. He didn’t, despite pressure, I’m sure, from Barcelona to do just that. Arsenal’s response to the Catalans continued pursuit of the player was unequivocal and definitive.
Barcelona have known all along that they simply couldn’t pay what Arsenal would want yet they led Fabregas to believe they would do what it took to bring him back to the club. They used him, unsuccessfully, to try and drive down the price to one they could just about manage provided Arsenal agreed to a long-term installment deal.
The whole thing has backfired, they have little financial credibility and the idea that they can come up with a transfer fee big enough to persuade Arsenal to sell is ludicrous.
Nobody is foolish enough to rule out Cesc’s return to Barcelona at some stage but if the Catalans really have any interest in the player beyond that as a trophy signing they should call the whole thing off now. Apologise for leading him on, tell him a deal is beyond their means at the moment and let him concentrate on his career. He’s still just 23 with plenty of time on his side to go back one day.
Just not now.
At last somone has hit the nail on the head, barca are becoming a fading star as are a lot of porly run clubs cesc should stay with the arse one of the few financly well run clubs you know it makes sense!!!!!!!
I must pull you up on the comment “Since then they’ve never realistically challenged for the Premier League”. Er, excuse me I think we have actually. We were still right up there with 3 weeks to go last season. Several seasons since then we have led the campaign from very early on till at least March. 2 years ago the table finished 83,85 and 87 points with AFC third but those points tallies are very close. The bad luck we have had is well documented (leg breaks etc) and we play in a country where our technical style of football is not the norm. You know full well that we would’ve won the league if it hadn’t been for the Eduardo incident.
A very rational summary of the situation. It might also be added that Cesc has be used as a pawn in the Barca presidential change with both the old and new holders buying fan’s approval by trying to talk the transfer through in public through the compliant Spanish media. But now every new statement increasing smacks of desperation on their part, with them having to use their own players as mouthpieces for their propaganda. (You know all that stuff about Cesc’s Barca DNA). For the reasons you state all Arsenal need to do is to sit still and say nothing. No doubt the volume from Spain will be turned up further but with Arsenal refusing to budge it’s likely that Cesc will realise on which side his bread is buttered.
Ptang – Arsenal were in the mix this season but I didn’t realistically expect us to win the title.
As for the Eduardo thing, I think it certainly had an impact but they should have been strong enough to cope better. I think what people also overlook is that we lost Sagna and Flamini fairly shortly afterwards for the rest of the season. I take your point though but once we’d been overtaken that season there was no way we were ever going to catch up.
Stroller – I think Cesc is realistic enough to know that unless a deal which values him properly is on the table then Arsenal won’t sell
Very well written.
I’ve always been of the persuasion that Cesc would see out his current contract at Arsenal and move in 2015-16 when he’d be 28 or so. It made sense for him: he’d leave in his prime and be able to give Barcelona 4-5 quality years before considerin his twilight. It made sense for Arsenal: by that stage, Aaron Ramsey would be the mature and natural heir to Cesc as #4 and Cesc and Arsene could walk away hand in hand. It also made sense for Barcelona: it let them play Xavi and Iniesta without concern and then they’d bring Cesc to lead their new team with Messi, Pedro and Bojan as their heart.
Seems Barca jumped the gun and can’t pull themselves back now.
For me, the most telling thing is the recent change in tactic; Barca have started to plant stories suggesting that they won’t “wait much longer” for Cesc.
Amusingly, this tries to imply that they have the ‘whip hand’ in the situation, like Arsenal is some kind of truculent misbehaving child, refusing to do the bidding of its master, when quite clearly they have lost any sway by the very fact that a bailout has been necessary just to pay wages – standard operating costs in any business, not unusual and/or unforeseen ‘adjustments’.
Cesc will go – we all know that – but it won’t be this summer.
I think they’ll continue and hope the player forces the issue
A fair assessment overall but have contracts no value at all or are they just a tool to protect the player? To be relevant they must protect and govern all parties in the agreement. Arsenal can say a definitive NO or they can say Yes, but the price is £X millions. Barcelona are technically insolvent at the moment. Yes, they have great earning power but one of their leading benefactors, the TV company they sold their rights to, have filed for bankruptcy and I doubt they’ll get another deal to the same value. The point is that, even with their recent success and the fact that many of their players came through the ranks, costing them virtually nothing in transfer fees, they still cannot break even. In actual fact they have gone into massive debt (one half billion) and still owe Arsenal, among others, many, many millions of £’s for past transfers. Spain itself is deep, deep in the financial mire and being Spain, have no coherrent plan to get out of it apart from holding the begging bowl out to the EU and I don’t think that’ll work any more. The real cost to Barcelona is their credibility and they will try hard to make this Cesc business seem like Arsenal’s fault to maintain what little financial honour they have left.
Hey well written and to the point. Barca have really tried to destabilize cesc by playing on his emotions, and the fact that he hasn’t won anything despite being phenomenal.
I was thinking that since Messi is elegible for Spain, soon we’ll here the c**ts pique, and xavi asking him to come play for la roja. messi has spanish DNA.
btw Cesc turned 23 a few months ago. still a while before he turns 24. He’s a kid, with a long future ahead of him.
Hi!
Sorry to be pedantic, but aren’t Citeh’s owners from Abu Dhabi? Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates & Dubai is another of the cities, to the N.E. of Abu Dhabi.
You’re right, HH, cheers. And TSOG, thanks for the age correction
Morning Blogger,
Great piece as usual. Excellent analysis of the situation. I just hope and pray that Rosell and his team of managerial cohorts get murdered by angry Barca’ fans along with that nasty cunt Laporta. Bring it on. In fact I might start the rumour in my Pueblo and see if we can’t get things moving on this.
On a slightly different topic, I see you are still whoring yourself on this website. Tut, Tut. Get back to the Arseblog full time you Irish tart.
I strongly doubt that Barca will have received any money from the Chygrynskiy sale. They only bought him last year, and it would be most unusual if they had actually paid in full. More probably the €10m difference is what they have already paid to have him sitting on the bench for twelve months, and now they’ve shipped him back since they can’t afford his wages..
Makes sense. I was trying to work out those kind of permutations when writing the article but it gave me a headache.
Great article. Think we’ll definitely get another year out of cesc. as you say, barca have led him royally up the garden path, and now cant deliver on their promises. lets just hope that all the politics and hot air from catalunya havent turned his head completely. We dont want an unhappy fabregas going through the motions for the season, though i genuinely cant imagine him doing that.
one thing for certain, if he does stay we all need to put this summer’s nonsense behind us and from day one make the boy know at full volume (Block 5, you’re on) that we still love him, and that he can still shag all our wives
On the 13th May 2010, Cesc Fabregas acted as sponsor for a function at Port Aventura to celebrate the history of 15 years, since the opening of the theme park. At that event Cesc said “If I leave the Arsenal it will be to play for Barça, probably yes”. This answer was to a question regarding a Real Madrid move. In Spanish “Si me voy del Arsenal es para jugar en el Barça”. A local paper the Mundo Deportivo, did a front page exclusive “Fabregas wants to play for Barça”.
This set the scene for wild speculation BUT this particular paper is sponsoring Cesc’s summer football Campus II to be held in Tordera, this month. So Cesc has to be diplomatic here and say what he has said.
In the same paper, 16th May 2010, Cesc gave an interview to his sister, C. Roura, who is also an assistant director of Campus II. This interview can be seen in the archives, I believe, at http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/20100516/53927949389/noticia/el-martes-dia.
From that article it is quite obvious where the “seny” of Cesc Fabregas is set.
The way I see it is this: Bar*a are out of money, and for some reason they still really want Fabregas. Hmm, how to do this? Laporta, being the consummate politician that he is, knew there was only one way – to unsettle Cesc and then get him on the cheap. I don’t know what he did (tapping up, paying Pique & Xavi extra to spout that DNA nonsense), but it has worked. Bar*a took advantage of the fact that Cesc was going to be ensconced in the company of such wonderful people as Xavi, Pique and Iniesta for an entire month. It has worked quite beautifully according to Laporta’s plans.
Now Arsenal are smart enough to realize this, and have been doggedly resilient, only responding the one time when Bar*a acted legally (i.e. put an actual offer in, albeit an insulting one). But we (i.e. Arsenal) are in a bind too. We have a captain whose head has been turned, but we have no reason to sell, and those scums don’t have the money to pay the right amount. Arsenal have enough grounds to ask FIFA to investigate Bar*a’s conduct this summer, but they run the risk of further alienating Fabregas. He might still stay at the club, and Arsenal need to do everything in their power to make sure he atleast stays focused on the cause this season if he’s around. Remember Vieira and Henry in their final seasons?
I wonder what Le Boss is doing with Cesc in S. Africa, seeing how he has been there all month. We know the DNA specialists are operating on him everyday, but I am sure AW knows this. So what has been his gameplan? Has there been communication between the two? o_O
This new Rosell dude is not the politician Laporta was. I dont think he is as well-versed in such nefarious unsettling tactics (but people below him might be). But I really, really fear we might have lost a bit of commitment from Cesc. And it sucks, cos Arsenal have done NOTHING wrong. They have acted very respectfully towards Bar*a and Cesc both, while Bar*a have done everything that is possibly unethical… and yet its almost a lose-lose situation for Arsenal. Laporta’s tactics have already worked to a certain extent. He didn’t care if Cesc was happy, he just fucking wanted him to come to Bar*a!
I think Cesc can buy out his contract if he wanted to (FIFA rules allow a player to do so after completing 3yr into current contract – Cesc has done 3 out of 8). However this will be costly for Cesc and there is no way Barca would reimburse him for it.
Also this world cup Cesc has hardly got a game for Spain and pretty much Barca and Spain both pay 4-3-3 and I cannot see how xavi-iniesta-cesc midfield would work. Xavi and Cesc are running into each other’s way.
Cesc will not get games unless xavi or iniesta is injured.
So two good reason why not is not the time for Cesc to leave. Maybe in a couple years when xavi/iniesta retires then I can see Cesc finally returning to Barca.
The 3rd reason? well as pointed out in this article Barca is broke and even if they agree to pay Arsenal 50-60 mil it will be installments over 5 or 6 years which is not good for Arsenal’s cash flow.
Any deal to sell Cesc should require an upfront payment for 50% or more of the asking price.
[...] I was obviously disappointed not to see Cesc got on last night – but he still has a few days left to oust Pedro and earn a start against Van Persie’s Holland in the World Cup Final. Two Arsenal players in the Final makes it a big day for Arsenal fans. Whether they’ll both be at the club come the start of the season remains to be seen, but Barca are looking increasingly unlikely to find the extra millions required to prise Fabregas away. [...]
[...] I was obviously disappointed not to see Cesc got on last night – but he still has a few days left to oust Pedro and earn a start against Van Persie’s Holland in the World Cup Final. Two Arsenal players in the Final makes it a big day for Arsenal fans. Whether they’ll both be at the club come the start of the season remains to be seen, but Barca are looking increasingly unlikely to find the extra millions required to prise Fabregas away. [...]
MegaGooner,
‘..And it sucks, cos Arsenal have done NOTHING wrong. They have acted very respectfully towards Barça and Cesc both, while Barça have done everything that is possibly unethical…’
Please don’t assume the moral high ground on this one. What goes around comes around. A little reflection on how and when Cesc arrived at Arsenal in the first place wouldn’t go amiss.
Not that I condone what is going on, nor even do I think that Cesc would necessarily be a good signing for Barça. But you can’t have it both ways.