Will Manchester United sign Fabregas?
Along with the Suarez saga, Fabregas’ proposed move to Manchester United has to be one of the most drawn out transfers of the summer.
Whilst the Catalan giants continued to state that Fabregas was “non-transferable”, it appeared that a conclusion was insight as United’s new Executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward flew back from the club’s Asian tour to put the final touches to the proposed move. Within hours of Woodward boarding his flight home, Barcelona broke the news that head coach Tito Vilanova was stepping down as a result of his continuing fight against throat cancer. All bets were off as it was obvious that any move for Fabregas would be put on hold until a new coach was appointed.
Now that Gerardo Martino has been unveiled the question everyone wants answering is will Fabregas stay or go?
Martino’s reply: “I’m not going to involve myself in the club’s accounts, but considering the club has already rejected two offers, I would guess it will reject a third. In other words, he will remain here.”
A very interesting reply, he didn’t state that Fabregas was “non-transferable” like his sporting Director Josep Maria Bartomeu. Instead he referred to the “club’s accounts” as if they were the driving factor ?
Speculation has been rife for quite sometime now that the Catalan club has to balance the books in the wake of the £50m acquisition of Neymar, the sale of Thiago Alcantara recouped £22m, but there is still a considerable hole in the club’s accounts and all the experts still feel the club need additional cover in defence.
There also seems to have been a mood change within the Fabregas camp, initially the comments were that the player was happy to fight for his place and didn’t want to move from his childhood club. Those comments have now fundamentally changed to him being “concerned about his first team chances”, “interested in a return to the Prem” and now he has told friends he would “consider a move to United”.
Whilst United have a new management team, it is highly unlikely that the club would entertain such a public interest in the player unless they had received encouragement from Barcelona. Recent transfer activity at Barcelona coupled with the comments of the incoming coach point to the fact that Barcelona are watching the pennies, however they will be aware that Fabregas is a fan’s favourite and as such they must be seen to discourage any advances.
Somewhere in the smoke and mirrors lies the truth; Fabregas is a great player, but he firmly sits behind Xavi and Iniesta in the pecking order at Barcelona and whilst those players are still at the top of their game he will remain an understudy. His time will come, but the more pressing need for defensive cover and recent expenditure may mean that Fabregas is one of the jewels in the crown Barcelona are willing to part with.