Barca land Arsenal's Fabregas for cheap

Fabregas has offered to help fund part of the transfer deal. (FILE)

Published Monday, August 15, 2011

By Staff

Cesc Fabregas may be officially unveiled as a Barcelona player within the next 48 hours but it will be the Spanish club and not Arsenal who will be laughing all the way to the bank.

The 'Daily Mirror' reported that Barcelona will further enrage Arsenal over the Fabregas transfer – by slapping a £130 million buy-out clause in his contract.

Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has been holding out for a better deal after believing Barcelona’s £36m offer is well short of the player’s true market value.

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Fabregas' transfer to Barcelona complete

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Gazidis has been left annoyed that Barca have got Fabregas on the cheap because the Spanish midfielder made it clear he did not want to go to Manchester City, Real Madrid and Inter Milan and a bidding war would have forced the price up towards £50m.

Barca are insistent that they will not pay any more and the clubs have been haggling for the past few days about the fine details of the deal which should be completed in the next few days.

Buy-out clauses are common in Spanish football and Barca have slapped nearly an extra £100m on Fabregas’s value straight away in his £100,000-a-week contract.

Fabregas, 24, has already offered to help part fund the deal by waiving a £4m pay-off from Arsenal while Barca will pay £27m plus £5m in add-ons. Barca must win the title twice and Champions League once in the next five years.

Arsenal’s other want-away midfielder Samir Nasri is also hoping to join Manchester City in the next 48 hours as Eastlands boss Roberto Mancini closes in on a £22m deal.

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