Cesc Fábregas stays at Arsenal, leaving Barcelona waiting for another year

Posted Friday, August 06, 2010 by theguardian.com

• Manager Arsène Wenger convinces captain to stay
• Barcelona expected to return for midfielder next year

Cesc Fábregas stays at Arsenal, leaving Barcelona waiting for another year
Cesc Fábregas has confirmed he will remain an Arsenal player for the coming Premier League season.

Cesc Fábregas is staying at Arsenal after Barcelona failed in their protracted and often tortuous summer-long campaign to lure the Spain midfielder back to the Camp Nou. Arsenal's captain held talks with Arsène Wenger, the manager, earlier today and the upshot is that he has been persuaded to remain at the club.

It is not outlandish to suggest that Barcelona will be back in for Fábregas next summer but for at least the forthcoming season, Arsenal will keep their talisman.

There is a mixture of relief and triumph at the north London club and with the key piece of his jigsaw firmly in place, Wenger can look ahead with optimism to the new season. Losing Fábregas would have blown a hole in his plans and there have been almost daily suggestions from Spain that the 23-year-old was open to the transfer, but Wenger has repeatedly refused to consider it.

Arsenal rejected a bid of £29m from Barcelona on 1 June and it has also become increasingly clear that the Spanish champions have not had the funds to make even Wenger think again.

At the beginning of the summer, it was possible that Arsenal might have entertained the notion had Barcelona made a truly massive offer. Sources at Arsenal suggested that money of "Cristiano Ronaldo proportions" – in other words, a figure to rival the £80m that Real Madrid paid to Manchester United for the Portuguese winger last summer – might have compelled them to wonder whether the pros could have outweighed the cons.

But as the weeks have ticked by towards the new season, the chances of that have receded and Wenger's stance has hardened to the point where he might, hypothetically, have ignored a transfer request from Fábregas. The player, despite Barcelona's constant cajoling, was never going to follow that drastic course of action.

Nobody can question Fábregas's love for Arsenal, nor his wholehearted endeavour in the shirt of the club that he joined as a 16-year-old and it is likely that efforts will be made in the coming days to remind the Gunners' faithful of that. They will simply be delighted that he will once again be present to drive their bid for trophies.

Fábregas reported back for pre-season training today, after an extended summer break following his exertions for Spain in their World Cup winning campaign, and he trained with his team-mates in front of an estimated 10,000 fans at the members' day at the Emirates Stadium. He was well received by them. Arsenal also had their official photocall, in which Fábregas took his place.

There has been anger behind the scenes at Arsenal over the manner in which the Catalans have publicly courted their midfielder. Barcelona players, including Xavi, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta, have gone on the record to urge Fábregas to return to the club where he started his career as a youth player and Arsenal have felt under siege.

Mercifully, though, the summer saga is now at an end. Barcelona have claimed to have had Fábregas's "will" over the transfer but they have not managed to fashion the way.

Wenger's thoughts are on the new season, and whether Fábregas and the striker Robin van Persie, who also returned to training today having played for Holland in the World Cup final on 11 July, will be ready for the opening Premier League fixture against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday week. Wenger has said he feels both of them will be "short". Arsenal play their final pre-season friendly at Legia Warsaw on Saturday and neither Fábregas nor Van Persie is expected to feature.

Wenger remains keen to strengthen his squad as he seeks a first trophy since the 2005 FA Cup and his priority is to find cover in central defence. He has a serious interest in Montpellier's Bosnian international Emir Spahic. It is the retention of Fábregas, though, that will go down as his most significant business of the summer.