01 Jun 2013 10:29:45
I've been told that Zubizaretta was a bit loose tongued at a dinner following the abidal news on Thursday. Basically said that barca have been quietly trying to make cesc available but rumours have already surfaced. Arsenal Bayern and both Manc clubs are aware. Arsenals take is currently not interested at 35m as the club would rather take the 40% they stand to receive from any transfer and invest it on the players identified as summer targets. Barca don't want a public auction as cesc is popular in Catalonia and the release of abidal and perceived defensive frailties has generated some negativity so would prefer a quiet deal to be agreed.
Only other arsenal tidbit is that vermaelen and koscielny are nowhere near top of their list to replace puyol/abidal.
The source of this info has about a 50% success rate - got Monreal and Cazorla very early but also told me Nicolas N'Koulou was on his way to the emirates when in fact it was Mertesacker.

1.) 01 Jun 2013
Considering we're not interested at 35m, i'm assuming we would be interested in signing on a lower fee?
would you rather have Cesc back for 25-30m or that money spent elsewhere?

PdotY

2.) 01 Jun 2013
AW still won't buy at 30m. At 25m, excellent.

Lanz

3.) 01 Jun 2013
On second thoughts, since they will get 21m while we get 14m if they sell at 35m, they can as well just sell to us at 21m! This I I think may eventually be the case as I believe Cesc will refuse to go to the Manc clubs. Bayern, maybe. Either way, we win.

4.) 03 Jun 2013
We only get 40% of the profit of Cesc's sale. So barca would have to sell him for a shed load for us to get 14 mill.