Barcelona's offer to Arsenal was improved on their previous £26 million bid - which seems ridiculous when you consider other transfer deals occurring this summer - to £30 million plus £5 million in add-ons. Despite Wenger reportedly allowing Barca to speak to Fabregas, he is staying strong in the £40 million valuation.
The Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, told the Star:
"Their offer was nowhere near what we are looking for. It is very straightforward from our point of view. We have told them what we want and we are sticking to it."
"We do not think we are being at all unreasonable when you see the sort of prices players are being sold for, who are not even half as good as Cesc."
"Barcelona are offering extra payments which are dependent on all sorts of fantastical things, but we are not interested in that. We want them to pay what he is worth."The Star also states that Fabregas is "devastated" and "desperate" at the rejected bid, but somehow, I don't think he would have expected a bid such as this to be accepted, especially as Arsenal have made it abundantly clear of their intentions to make £40 million.
The Arsenal squad travelled to Lisbon to play Benfica in a pre-season friendly last night, and despite Fabregas participated fully in the build up training, he did not travel with his team mates. Either there is a fitness issue, or Fabregas is attempting to speed along his move to Spain before the start of the new season.
Barcelona have never been any good at taking hints, even really big ones. The "Fabregas is not for sale" line didn't put them off, and now the "Fabregas will only leave for at least £40 million" doesn't seem to translate into anything comprehensible, even though Wenger can speak Spanish well.
What Barcelona must understand, is Arsenal need as much money as possible to reinvest, as Fabregas is their most influential players as well as the captain. The sooner they realise that, the sooner this boring saga will be over with.
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