Wenger fury as Real try to lure £35m Cesc
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DON'T GO ... Arsene Wenger and Cesc Fabregas.
ARSENE WENGER is considering reporting Real Madrid to FIFA for tapping up Cesc Fabregas. Real president Ramon Calderon has declared his interest in the Spanish midfielder, which Wenger slammed as ‘disrespectful’ behaviour.
Calderon said: “My policy is not to create a confrontation with other teams — but Cesc is No 1 in his position. I would like to have him.” Furious Wenger had earlier warned Calderon: “I don’t want to sit there and hear Madrid come out and say they want this player and Barcelona come out and say they want that one. “I never come out and say that I want a player from Real Madrid or Barcelona because of respect to these clubs.
“If I want a player from them I call them, “I know who to call and ask if they’re selling him. “All the rest I find that it’s like ‘We walk all over everybody else and we don’t care about anybody’.
“It’s unacceptable. But nothing will ever be done. “The rule when a player is under contract is that you first contact the club to see if a player is available. “We’re not stupid enough to believe it really happens like that but I think you have to be decent enough not to come out in newspaper because it’s unsettling as well.
“That they contact agents behind our back, we understand. “But that they come in a newspaper I find disrespectful.”
Calderon had told reporters: “If Cesc wants a change we will be there to negotiate. “Cesc is a player that all managers and technical directors like and ours do too. “But it has to be a decision that comes from him. It has to be the player to understand a cycle has ended and he wants a change. “If that’s the case we’ll be ready to negotiate with his team.”
Calderon’s words will infuriate Wenger, who has hinted he is ready to sue Inter Milan for tapping up midfielder Alexander Hleb. The Belarus midfielder’s future is also uncertain following the very public overtures of Inter, who have already met his representatives.
Reporting Real to FIFA is an option Wenger is certainly prepared to take. It is not the first time Madrid have caused outrage with their blatant disregard for FIFA rules. They tapped up David Beckham after ex-president Florentino Perez invited him to the Bernabeu.
Perez also approached Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira and held a private meeting him but the French international’s move fell through. Real have constantly shown a desire to sign Manchester United ace Cristiano Ronaldo. The winger came close to joining them two years ago after his World Cup spat with Wayne Rooney.
Barcelona have also tried to lure Arsenal’s players on numerous occasions. They nabbed Thierry Henry for £16million last summer.
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Threat of exodus casts doubt on Wenger masterplan.
Arsenal's season had flirted with glory for so long it seems perverse that Arsène Wenger must consider the summer ahead with a growing sense of frustration rather than any satisfaction. His team had carried all before them at times, the combination of the scintillating and the exhilarating threatening to yield a Premier League title and the European Cup. A lack of depth to his squad undermined those aspirations at the last. Now the fear nags that this set-up is to be stripped when it needs to be strengthened in the weeks to come.
Already, infuriatingly, the talk is of this side being dismantled. The departure of Mathieu Flamini, arguably Arsenal's most improved and consistently impressive player this season, to Milan provided further deflation just as the last puff was leaving this team's pursuit of Manchester United and Chelsea. Jens Lehmann and even Gilberto Silva had been expected to move on, but the French midfielder had been offered fine terms to remain at the Emirates Stadium. Those proposals still fell well short of the £65,000-a-week deal to be had at San Siro.
Alexander Hleb, courted unashamedly by Internazionale, also appears destined for transfer, denying Wenger two key components of the side he had hoped would continue their development and win the club's first silverware since 2005 next time around. There have been suggestions emanating from France that William Gallas, soon to lose the captaincy, may yet join the exodus, while Real Madrid were back courting Cesc Fábregas again over the weekend. "Cesc is Spanish, and one of my first objectives is to make Real Madrid more Spanish," the Real president, Ramón Calderón, was quoted as saying. Fábregas is contracted until 2014 in north London and revels under Wenger's tutelage. Yet his closest friends at the club were Hleb and Flamini.
Arsenal's supporters may not have anticipated such a demoralising denouement to what should be considered a hugely encouraging campaign, but Wenger might have seen this coming. Back in December, the Frenchman had obliquely reproached Lassana Diarra as his compatriot bemoaned a lack of opportunity barely six months after departing the bench at Chelsea. "You tell me one club in the world of our size who gives a chance to the young players like we do," said the manager. "At our club, young players are in paradise." Diarra left utopia in search of first-team football. Flamini appears to have been enticed away by higher wages and what he perceives to be a more immediate promise of trophies.
Wenger might disagree with that, and would be disheartened to lose such a key performer, but he has experience of a side of huge promise unravelling despite his best efforts. Back in 1992, his Monaco side's campaign which had threatened so much ended in crippling anticlimax. Marseille, the dominant domestic force, had been pursued in the French championship only to squeeze out the Monegasques at the last for a second successive year. Monaco's appearance in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Werder Bremen was overshadowed by a tragedy at Marseille's Coupe de France semi-final against Bastia on the eve of the game. Some 17 people died when a temporary stand collapsed at the Furiani stadium. The Coupe de France final, for which Monaco had qualified, was never played; Otto Rehhagel's Germans won the European showpiece against Wenger's numbed players 2-0.
Monaco were tagged as nearly men, the memory of the league title secured in Wenger's first season at the club, back in 1988, long forgotten. What should have been considered a successful season ended without a trophy and, in the summer of 1992, one of the most talented teams to grace French domestic football began to break up in search of silverware elsewhere. "We had the best players in France," said Jean Petit, Wenger's assistant at the Stade Louis II. "With such a squad, with such players, we wanted to keep the structure in place for subsequent years. It was so frustrating that we didn't manage to do that."
George Weah was sold to Paris St-Germain and Gérald Passi to St-Etienne. Wenger would not win another trophy with them. "For me, the disintegration of that squad started in May 1992 [with the loss to Werder]," said Claude Puel, a midfielder under Wenger at Monaco and currently the coach of Lille. "A fortnight from the end of the league, we were tied with Marseille and we had reached the finals of the Coupe de France and the Cup Winners' Cup, but we ended up fading horribly."
Wenger had wheeled and dealed as best he could at his first club, Nancy, but he had built his first great sides at Monaco. He has constructed teams of wonderful quality during his 12 years in London, yet there had been real thrill in his voice whenever the Frenchman discussed the current crop over the course of this season. This was a team he had nurtured towards fruition while Chelsea distorted the transfer market and spent so lavishly to eclipse him. It was a side who might dominate as they learned, yet the concern now is that their development may have been checked.
The Arsenal manager has insisted, once it was clear that his squad was not strong enough to compete to the end on two fronts that his philosophy will not change. Recruitment would be in youth to be shaped, rather than in experienced, expensive players ready to hold down first-team places. That ideology may have to be re-assessed. Wenger had hoped to tweak his squad in the summer, not overhaul it. Yet, as key players suggest their futures lie elsewhere, the number of reinforcements required increases. Frustration may prompt a rethink.
Changing faces Wenger's previous rebuilds
1997-98 League and Cup Double
1999-2000 Uefa Cup finalists
Arsène Wenger inherited the indomitable English back four. Patrick Vieira provided the midfield mettle and Marc Overmars and Nicolas Anelka did the scoring. By 1999 Thierry Henry was making his presence felt2001-02 League and Cup double
2003-04 Unbeaten League winners
Tony Adams bowed out, replaced by Sol Campbell, who formed a superb partnership with Kolo Touré. Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg established themselves on the flanks; Dennis Bergkamp provided continuity2005-06 Champions League finalists
2007-08 A season of near misses
Vieira had gone, Ashley Cole and Pires wanted out and José Antonio Reyes was a rare miss in the transfer market. Cesc Fábregas emerged as a leader but the failure to replace Vieira has been a problem ever since -
Pls do not go, fk la. gogogo, then whose going to be our backbone in Arsenal??
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real madrid are cheesepies of football
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money talks...
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Real Madrid last night launched a £35million attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas. And Real president Ramon Calderon claimed the Spanish giants would set "no limits" in their battle to lure him away from Arsenal.
Calderon has described the Spain star as the "best midfielder in the world" in a move which will infuriate Wenger, who has already been incensed by Inter Milan's attempts to "tap up" Alexander Hleb.
Calderon has let it be known that Real will pay up to £35m for Fabregas at the start of what is likely to be a long battle for the 21-year-old Gunner. Calderon, celebrating the Spanish title, said: "If we receive any indication from the player that he wants to leave Arsenal then we will negotiate without limits.
"But like in the subject of Cristiano Ronaldo, the decision is up to them. My policy is also to work on signings without getting into wars with clubs if they don't want to sell the player. "I would like to hear it personally from the player that he wants to leave before I make any move to respect Arsenal."
An angry Wenger hit back, saying: "The rules are clear: if you are interested in a player then first you have to call us. Real Madrid come out and say they want that player. That is something I would never do."
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no team seems to respect arsenal.
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"Something nice about Cesc is that he is Spanish and this is one of my objectives - to make Real Madrid more Spanish."
Real president Ramon Calderon
"My future belongs to Arsenal, and it is the truth. I do not know why [it was brought up]. It is always the same with my situation, always putting my name in another team. I have always said I want to play for Arsenal, it is the best team I can be at, the best club for me. Before I even say anything, people put me in another club and I don't understand that. But I have always wanted to play for Arsenal."
Fabregas
Wenger, though, was unhappy with stories linking Alex Hleb with Inter Milan, in March, and is to report the club to Fifa, the game's world governing body. The Frenchman has revealed that, in the last week, he has been made aware of developments regarding a reported illegal move for Hleb.
In March, when Arsenal played AC Milan in Italy, the Belarus international left the Melia Felix Hotel with the agent Claudio Vigorelli, who is an associate of international agent Vincenzo Morabito.
"It's true that Hleb saw Vigorelli and they went out from the Melia Felix, but it's not true that they went to talk to Inter Milan," Morabito said at the time. "They went for an ice-cream. We are sorry that Mr Wenger took it badly and complained, because we have a good relationship with him."
Wenger stopped short of revealing precisely what it was that had come to light, but was clearly angered by what he considered a breach of the rules.
"I will of course do it [report them to Fifa], with Inter Milan especially," Wenger said. "I now know more about what happened over there [in Milan]. I will keep the information for those who need to know it. I don't want to speak much more on that, but it is unfair what happened."
The big four's big earners
Chelsea
John Terry £130,000
Michael Ballack £120,000
Liverpool
Fernando Torres £120,000
Steven Gerrard £120,000
Manchester United
Cristiano Ronaldo £122,000
Wayne Rooney £115,000
Arsenal
William Gallas £75,000
Cesc Fabregas £70,000 -
i thought manutd top earner is rio?
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Originally posted by stellazio:
no team seems to respect arsenal.
At least Arsenal is a lot more respectable compared to Chelsea.Hold on, who care about Chelsea at all?
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Knn ... Arsenal now looking more like a feeder club ...
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Originally posted by zocoss:
Real Madrid last night launched a £35million attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas. And Real president Ramon Calderon claimed the Spanish giants would set "no limits" in their battle to lure him away from Arsenal.
Calderon has described the Spain star as the "best midfielder in the world" in a move which will infuriate Wenger, who has already been incensed by Inter Milan's attempts to "tap up" Alexander Hleb.
Calderon has let it be known that Real will pay up to £35m for Fabregas at the start of what is likely to be a long battle for the 21-year-old Gunner. Calderon, celebrating the Spanish title, said: "If we receive any indication from the player that he wants to leave Arsenal then we will negotiate without limits.
"But like in the subject of Cristiano Ronaldo, the decision is up to them. My policy is also to work on signings without getting into wars with clubs if they don't want to sell the player. "I would like to hear it personally from the player that he wants to leave before I make any move to respect Arsenal."
An angry Wenger hit back, saying: "The rules are clear: if you are interested in a player then first you have to call us. Real Madrid come out and say they want that player. That is something I would never do."
i donno why i
when i saw the word ball -
Originally posted by Spartans:
At least Arsenal is a lot more respectable compared to Chelsea.Hold on, who care about Chelsea at all?
what has this gotta do with chelsea?
who cares? obviously arsenal cares enough to hope chelsea slips up and try to steal that 2nd spot. but they have to respect the fact that they can't now..
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arsenal's salary ceiling really works against them.
highest paid only 70k???
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Originally posted by dragg:
arsenal's salary ceiling really works against them.
highest paid only 70k???
Gallas, $75k... -
i think the salary is abit too low. But last time the highest earning was henry at 100k ithink
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Yeah seriously, why are the gunners players earning so little? They deserved more.... if they want to to win titles, you should also give the players reasonable amount....
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fabregas shld go real madrid!! , i love real madrid. my all time favourite club.!
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No matter which player Real Madrid signs, it still underachieves in the Champs League.
Any idea why?
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arsenal is the all time great pretender.....cheap skate.....
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Arsenal despite having a reasonable yearly profit, are still deep in debt over their stadium... Actually i feel if they want to, they can also pay like the other top 3 clubs like they used to with Henry but the thing now is I belief the current shareholders and directors are just interested to repay their debts as soon as possible or lower it as much so when they do sell very soon i belief, withing 2, 3 yrs... They will have more money to share... These current shareholders don't really care how the club perform, they only care about their bottom line and how much they get to take back...
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As usual Real always wants to buy players who did extremely well for their respective clubs. Take Ronaldo for instance. He had a outstanding season for Man U and they wan him. Fabregas has stated that he doesn't want to leave Arsenal. but Madrid die die want him. I was wondering if the reports on Madrid taking loan from bank to fund their transfer and day to day operations were true.
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Madrid always like that one. :D