Fabregas to quit Arsenal after Hill-Wood bust-up - Exclusive

Published 23:00 27/05/10 By John Cross


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Cesc Fabregas has revealed to friends he made up his mind to quit after a bust-up surrounding Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood.

Fabregas claims he was “50-50” about staying at Arsenal this summer but was enraged by Hill-Wood’s recent comments that he would not be able to get into the Barcelona team.

Hill-Wood said last month: “If you want my opinion, I’m not sure he would even get in their team. Do they need him? I’m not sure that they do.”

MirrorFootball revealed two days later that Fabregas had been left angered by the remarks and found them disrespectful.

Now Fabregas is telling pals that was the deciding factor and the reason behind him telling Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger that he wants to quit.

Hill-Wood has been resolute that Arsenal will not sell Fabregas, but the chairman does have a habit of putting his foot in it with some of his remarks, previously upsetting ex-skipper Patrick Vieira and recently blasting William Gallas’ wage demands.

But Fabregas’s latest suggestion is unlikely to please the board who are fighting to keep him and MirrorFootball revealed yesterday that they had told Barcelona they are not interested in selling at any price.

Barcelona have made only a tentative enquiry and have yet to make a bid, but Arsenal have told them not to bother as Fabregas has five years left on his contract.

But Barcelona presidential candidate Marc Ingla insists Cesc Fabregas will move to the Nou Camp this summer.

Ingla said: “Cesc will be a Barcelona player, yes, yes. The money is not as important as his dream because he wants to return to Barcelona and it’s a dream for our fans.

“Arsenal are a model club and to maintain good relations we will try to agree a good price. Of course Barcelona wants to complete a quick deal.

“I believe that Cesc’s time at Arsenal has finished, they have benefited from him and now we hope to reach agreement.”

Barcelona are also monitoring Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano, but will only move for the Argentinian skipper if they can offload Yaya Toure this summer. Toure has been linked with Chelsea.