Soccer:Arsenal have rejected €30 million bid from Barcelona for Cesc Fabregas. The Catalans have chased the Arsenal captain for the past few summers, and it is widely expected that they will finally get their man this year.
However, they are unwilling to meet Arsenal's asking price for the midfielder, and several papers claim that they have started the bidding at €30 million, well below the believed asking price.
Barca offered around €40 million last summer, but president Sandro Rossell has stated that they will not repeat that offer.
"He (Cesc) is doing everything he can to come (here)," the Barca president told Catalan station TV3 on Monday night. "Guardiola knows the values of players and Cesc's is less than €40 million. Barcelona will offer less and if they (Arsenal) don't accept, then he won't come. Pep knows the club is not well-off in terms of money."
The club have stated that their entire summer transfer budget is around €45 million, plus any revenue from the sales of players. They are also in the bidding for Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez, although they are yet to agree a fee for the Chilean, and Manchester City are waiting in the wings.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)