Fabregas set to give up £4m to quit Arsenal for Barcelona

Cesc Fabregas is ready to give up more than £4m in bonuses to secure a move to Barcelona, says the Mail this morning. The paper reports that it is the latest twist in the protracted saga of the Arsenal captain’s desire to return to the club he left at 16 amounts to an official transfer request.

It adds that the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust drew attention to the £4m clause in Fabregas’s contract last week and the player himself has now offered to give up his right to the money to make the deal easier for Arsenal to accept.  It could prove decisive, although Fabregas will still have to see if Barcelona raise their latest offer of £32m plus £5m in additional payments, rejected by Arsenal last week, it is claimed.

Meanwhile the Mirror says AW is expected to complete the signing of Southampton’s teenage sensation Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in a £12m deal this week and remain in contention to sign defenders Chris Samba and Gary Cahill. The same paper says Man City  remain confident of landing elder Samir Nasri.

Elsewhere AW has had his say on the 2-1 defeat to Benfica in a pre-season friendly last night. He said: “Benfica played well for the full 90 minutes and the second half was a bit one-way traffic. We played well for 45 minutes and, after that, we dropped. We missed many players and you could see that in the second half. We got the intensity we wanted, it was a competitive game and we were challenged by a good team who had a lot of experienced players.”

RVP was the subject of a horror tackle and was taken off ah half-time. Of our injured players AW added: “It is an ankle problem, I don’t know how bad it is. Gibbs has a muscular [thigh] problem and Vermaelen has a slight back problem.”

The People claim Arsenal want a£15million for Nicklas Bendtner and that the fee and the 23-year-old Dane’s demands for a £3m-a-year contract are putting off potential buyers.

CARL ELDRIDGE – Follow me on Twitter @eldomedia