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by **aCe'** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:39 am

Fabregas and Nasri near moves to Barcelona & Man City

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri are both close to finalising moves away from the club.

Fabregas is on the verge of signing for European champions Barcelona for a fee believed to be about £35m.

Nasri is set to move to Manchester City with the clubs close to agreeing a fee between £22m and £24m.

"We hope it will be sorted out very quickly one way or the other," Wenger said of Fabregas.

"The Nasri situation is stable. Again it is very difficult to speak about possible transfers but we are in a situation where we have to make decisions one way or the other. Ideally you want it to be sorted out before the season starts."

For the first time, Arsene Wenger appears resigned to losing his two best players. The manager has seen Arsenal stars come and go before, but the expected departure of both Fabregas and Nasri as the season begins will be hard for him to take. Wenger now faces the greatest challenge of his career, deciding how to spend the £60m he will have to rebuild his side. At a defining press conference on Friday morning, Wenger must convince the club's traumatised fans that Arsenal can move on, and quickly.

A senior Arsenal source has told BBC Sport the funds generated by Fabregas's sale will be reinvested in new players.

The Gunners have been linked with Scott Dann, Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill.

Wenger looks intent on strengthening his defence and reports have suggested centre-backs Dann of Birmingham, Everton's Jagielka and Cahill of Bolton could be targets.

Fabregas, 24, would be unable to feature for Barcelona in the Champions League if he plays a part in Arsenal's match with Udinese on Tuesday. It now seems Wenger expects the deal to go through before the Gunners' Premier League opener this weekend.

BBC Sport understands the fee would be £30m, plus over £5m of additional performance-related payments.

Nasri's value to Arsenal would decrease to zero if he is allowed to run down the final year of a contract he signed with the club on joining from Marseille in July 2008.

It is believed that the Spaniard would be due £4m in compensation - £1m for each year of his contract he did not complete - but may be prepared to forego that payment in order to facilitate a deal.

The transfer fee is significantly less than the £40m that Arsenal had been holding out for and suggests that the Gunners felt they had no choice but to sell a player who wanted to leave.

Fabregas, who has 58 caps for Spain, joined Arsenal from the Catalan giants in 2003 and, since making his name in north London, has been persistently linked with a return to his boyhood club.

Barcelona made their first formal offer for Fabregas in June 2010.

Nasri, meanwhile, has yet to pen a new deal, and so could leave for nothing next summer.

Manchester City are reported to be ready to bid up to £25million for the France midfielder, and that deal could also be completed before the weekend.

BBC link

by **metalhead** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:46 am

It will be very interesting how Wenger will replace them. I think they will end up with Mata and a defender (Dann or Cahill) other than that I don't think they will be spending much from the money after buying Alexolade Chamberlain (sp?) for 12m+

My Gooner mates are very worried about this, they think Wenger has lost it

by **aCe'** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:14 am

Losing your 2 best players a few days before the start of the season... NOT COOL ARSENE !

Good news for both us and Tottenham and any other team hoping for a top4 spot...

That said, they still have plenty of talent and if reports from Arsenal officials are to be believed then they already have a few players lined up and are going to re-invest all the returns (at least from the Cesc deal) on new signings...

They still have pretty decent talent across the pitch, even in midfield after losing both...

Goalkeepers:

* 1 Manuel Almunia
* 13 Wojciech Szczesny
* 21 Lukasz Fabianski
* 24 Vito Mannone

None of them is a top goalkeeper. However, Szczesny did well last season imo and given his age he might very well turn out to be a top goalkeeper given experience and the top coaching he'll receive at Arsenal...

Defenders:

* 3 Bacary Sagna
* 5 Thomas Vermaelen
* 6 Laurent Koscielny
* 18 Sebastien Squillaci
* 20 Johan Djourou
* 25 Carl Jenkinson
* 28 Kieran Gibbs
* 27 Emanuel Eboue
* 30 Armand Traore

At the back is where they really struggle imo.. Like us, they lack a commanding presence in the air, and to make matters worse they also lack any sort of leadership and organization given the personnel.. Kieran Gibbs is a big gamble from Arsene imo and from the little I've seen of him he seems a downgrade from Clichy rather than an upgrade.. Decent on the ball but remains defensively suspect.. Varmaelen is a decent CB who (very much like Agger) seems rather susceptible to injuries. If they can get a Samba or Shawcross to partner him then they might be on to something..

Midfielders:

* 2 Abou Diaby
* 7 Tomas Rosicky
* 16 Aaron Ramsey
* 17 Alex Song
* 19 Jack Wilshere
* 23 Andrey Arshavin
* 35 Emmanuel Frimpong
* 14 Theo Walcott
* Gervinho
* Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Even without Fabregas and Nasri, they have decent options down the middle.. That said, they lack cover for Song, and I think they might very well decide to invest in yet another attacking midfielder to try and compensate for the loss of Nasri... Imo, the loss of Nasri rather than Fabregas will affect them the most. With Wilshere set to run the show for them down the middle, they seem to need another player with flair who is perhaps less direct than Gervinho and Arshavin to help them maintain their style of play.. The other option would be to push Wilshere a little higher up but that imo would leave Diabi/Rosicky having to play in a deeper role which neither seems to favor or be particularly good at..

Forwards:

* 10 Robin van Persie
* 11 Carlos Vela
* 29 Marouane Chamakh
* 52 Nicklas Bendtner

While Van Persie is an excellent forward, the other options they have for the lone striker role are either not good enough (Bendtner, Vela- not yet anyways) or dont match their style of play (Chamakh).. They have the numbers, but could do better in the psition imo...

Strongest lineup:

Szczesny

Sagna Koscieny(???) Varmaelen Gibbs

Song Wilshere

Walcott Gervinho Arshavin

Van Persie

by **Santa** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:19 am

How Arsene allowed the situation to reach this stage a week before the season starts is just irresponsible. I feel for the Gooners and I thot Benitez was stubborn...we have better sign up our CB for I see a panic buying week or two ahead from Arsene

by **maypaxvobiscum** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 am

Wenger says Arsenal do not need a centre back

they are doomed!

i'm certain they are gonna be in the Europa League next season. either us or Spurs will replace them in the ECL.
their squad is the weakest among the top 6.
sure they have their young bright prospects but they lack leadership.
what they need to do is sign a new central defender like Samba and a new defensive midfielder in the Vieira mould.

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:19 am

Good I'm glad he's ruining things there. For me out of all the top four Arsenal are the team to drop out. They're helping our cause massively!

by **brentd4** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:51 am

will the selling of cesc fabregas to barcelona and samir nasri be the death of arsenal, fabregas has been inspiratiuonal for them over the last few years, and with nasri's flair and input gave arsenal that little bit of bite, but with the departure of both men leaving looking closer than ever will this arsenal team crumble.

they have the youth to step in and start a new era, but wilshere, good player that he is, lacking experience, and ramsey starting to look impressive, do they have the equipment there to stay a top 4 team, or will a few bad results and lack of age mean they will hang their heads a fade away.

also, the players they have to relay on are very much average players in my opinion, walcott never really stepped up, oxlaide-chamberlain 17 and unproven, arshavin had one good game and unfortunately it was at anfield, and van persie, goal scorer but injured for most of the last 3 seasons.

i honestly think if results dont go their way, rvp, and wilshere could leave and we could maybe see the end of arsenal and wenger for quite some time.

by **Reg** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:55 am

I fel sory for the Arsenal fans, they've seen teh club held to ransom over Fabregas ina very unsavoury way. Nasri.... what two faced tw@t wouldnt go to Citeh for 180 thou a week?

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:13 am

Reg wrote:I fel sory for the Arsenal fans, they've seen teh club held to ransom over Fabregas ina very unsavoury way. Nasri.... what two faced tw@t wouldnt go to Citeh for 180 thou a week?

Hardly held to ransom, they're a victim of their own poor performances over the last few seasons.

Fabregas has wanted away for at least two seasons now. Arsenal resisted or convinced him on the proviso they were going to win things.

Wenger's stubbornness is the ultimate cause of all these issues. He refuses to accept his vision isn't working. All my mates who support Arsenal are praying he spends money on proven talent, not some kid who has potential.

No sympathy whatsoever.

by **stmichael** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:15 am

don't worry. everything's ok because they turn over a profit every year and play lovely football.

anyway, i think they could do with another tricky wide player. they're a bit short of those.

by **tubby** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:17 am

SouthCoastShankly wrote:Good I'm glad he's ruining things there. For me out of all the top four Arsenal are the team to drop out. They're helping our cause massively!

Couldn't agree more. :nod

by **jacdaniel** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:45 am

Of course Im very happy to see teams above us getting weaker!

Ive never hated Arsenal though like I hate the Mancs, Chelsea and City. I actually have a tiny bit of sympathy for them.. i remember not so long ago when every summer we were more interested in keeping our better players than signing new one's.

They're a victim of the money in the game. They're gonna struggle to stay competitive unless they can start spending 15M + on players. Thats the standard price for a good player now.

What they really need is some investment and a new manager with fresh ideas. lets hope they dont get it though

by **Dundalk** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 pm

stmichael wrote:don't worry. everything's ok because they turn over a profit every year a

Its like supporting a bank

by **metalhead** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:31 pm

Well Fabregas is gone now, on the plane to Barca

They will be totally screwed if they don't invest

by **stmichael** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:33 pm

put this in the funny vid thread but i'll put it in here aswell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDBLSUKJiDY

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