Barca: Fabregas not worth £35m
Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has claimed the Catalan club’s value of Cesc Fabregas has decreased, citing 'wear and tear' as having forced down the player's value.
The Spanish international has been a reported transfer target for the Champions League winners for a number of seasons, and was the subject of a £35 million bid from the club last summer.
However, the European champions have now stated that Fabregas is worth less then he was last season, and if they were to step up their interest for the 24-year-old, then they would table an offer less than last summer’s bid.
Rosell said: "If last summer we offered €40 million for Cesc, and since there has been wear and tear, now he's worth less."
Despite Fabregas’ obvious love affair with his boyhood club, he has remained reluctant to force a move away from Arsenal.
Along with Fabregas, Pep Guardiola's team have been linked to Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi and Udinese’s Alexis Sanchez, but Rosell has claimed that the club are yet to decide on their transfer targets.
He said: "I do not know if we are interested in Cesc, or Alexis and Rossi. I have no idea. There is always much talk."
Although Rosell was unwilling to discuss the club’s transfer policy, he did criticise Real Madrid’s speculated interest of reported target Fabregas, hinting the player would never consider a move to Barcelona’s arch rivals.
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"Cesc is Barca through and through and if I were the president of another club I would not sign a player who holds the colours of another club so dear,” he added.
"It would not be wise to sign a player who is associated so strongly with a rival."
Nick Moore is a freelance journalist based on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. He wrote his first FourFourTwo feature in 2001 about Gerard Houllier's cup-treble-winning Liverpool side, and has continued to ink his witty words for the mag ever since. Nick has produced FFT's 'Ask A Silly Question' interview for 16 years, once getting Peter Crouch to confess that he dreams about being a dwarf.