Former Barca midfielder cesc fabregas turned Man Utd down because he was second choice, but hes now pushing Chelsea move forward despite not being top of Mourinhos wishlist Cesc Fabregas’s impending £26.6 million move from Barcelona to Chelseais one of the most intriguing of the summer transfer window – not least because of the enmity that has existed between the two men. Fabregas famously told Mourinho to shut up and mind his own business after the Chelsea manager criticised Barcelona last season which, clearly, is not the kind of dialogue he is used to having with a player he wants to sign. Related Articles Chelsea complete £27m signing of Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona Chelsea confident of signing Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona for £27 million Transfer rumours: Premier League gossip and news But then Fabregas was never on Mourinhos list of intended midfield transfer targets – with Atletico Madrid’s Koke, Juventus’s Paul Pogba and Tottenham Hotspur’s Paulinho all ahead of him at the end of last season when Chelsea were drawing up their plans. That makes it all the more surprising that Fabregas appears keen to push through the deal given one of the reasons cited for him not wanting to move to Manchester United last year was that he, wrongly, felt slighted at being second-choice to Thiago Alcantara who United were close to signing from Barcelona. But the truth is that David Moyes pulled the plug on the Alcantara deal soon after he took over at Old Trafford – allowing him to join Bayern Munich – which had been set up by Sir Alex Ferguson so he could pursue Fabregas. It will be galling for Mourinho if Barca want to use the money from the Fabregas deal to finance a move for Koke although they have first secured the signing of Seville’s Ivan Rakitic. But Mourinho will argue that the chance to sign Fabregas came out of the blue for the Blues and given the difficulty of securing any of the three players he was primarily interested in makes sense. What is even more intriguing is that both Mourinho and Fabregas have to make this move work. The 27 year-old Spaniard has effectively been bombed out of Barca three years into a five-year contract by new coach Luis Enrique and is not wanted by Arsenal who had first option on signing him. Neither Manchester City nor United have shown any interest, and have told the player’s agent Darren Dein that, which has left a clear path for Chelsea. “I will always be an Arsenal fan,” Fabregas said in a statement when he finally got his wish after agitating to leave the club and join Barca three years ago but now he will move to one of their bitterest rivals. But that is football. For Mourinho, Fabregas has to work. He needs a replacement for Frank Lampard – the rumour being that the impending signing was the final prompt for the England international to confirm he was leaving – and cannot go another season without winning a trophy. But as fine a player as Fabregas is he is not a goal-scorer like Lampard and neither does he have the power or physicality of the other midfielders Mourinho was targeting. It begs the question as to who is driving the deal? At the same time Arsenal are due 50 per cent of any profit on the sell-on fee for Fabregas but having received £25.4m for the Spaniard – in two payments – then they can expect to receive very little if he goes to Chelsea. Arsenal will argue the money they made on Fabregas is even higher given he waived 1m euros (£880,0000) a season owed to him spread over the five years of his Barca contract in loyalty bonuses. But as he has only completed three years then Arsenal could miss out on £1.6m? There is another, more substantial fee, however, in which they are also believed to be missing out on. There was a clause in Fabregas’s contract which stipulated that Arsenal would receive further payments of up to £4.4m should Barca win two La Liga titles and a European Cup in the five years that Fabregas had signed up for. The club’s recent troubles have resulted in just one league title and therefore Arsenal will not receive the bonus
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:15:19 +0000
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