Arsenal have slapped a £40m price tag on their Spanish midfielder and captain Cesc Fabregas, as the Emirates side desperately tries to ward off interest in their talisman from Real Madrid and Barcelona, according to the Sun. An insider at the club told the newspaper: "Nobody at Arsenal wants to see Fabregas go but there comes a point when the money is too good to turn down. If Arsenal receives a bid in the region of £40m there will be an enormous pressure to sell." Arsene Wenger has a reduced transfer kitty this season so the sale of Fabragas would free up funds for developing the team...
With the signing of Michael Owen - either the riskiest transfer of his tenure at Old Trafford yet or a trademark act of Alex Ferguson genius - completed, the Man Utd manager is now looking at raiding the Camp Nou for Yaya Toure of Barcelona. The Daily Mail reports that there are growing doubts at Old Trafford about the long-term fitness of Owen Hargreaves, who has only played 25 times for Man Utd since his £17m transfer from Bayern Munich, and Ferguson has inquired after Toure. Barcelona appears willing to sell Toure if they are successful in their pursuit of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool...
Real Madrid president has put the chairmen of rival boards on notice, announcing that the Bernabeu club still need two signings before they will draw a close on their orgy of spending that has seen them splash out £180m on bringing in Cristiano Ronaldo, Lyons striker Karim Benzema, Br azil's Kaka and the defender Raul Albiol. The Guardian reports Perez as saying that Franck Ribery, the Bayern Munich winger, and Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso were "players [that] their clubs don't want to sell them" before wryly noting that "in the world of football situations can change"...
Perez revealed in the same interview that Real Madrid need to get rid of ten players before the new season begins, and their Dutch contingent of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart, Royston Drenthe and Klaas Jan Huntelaar have all been put on the market. AC Milan look likely to swoop for Huntelaar, who would cost around £20m, to replace Kaka reveals the Times. Of the others Nistelrooy could fetch £8m, Sneijder £12m-15m, Arjen Robben could top £18m and Van der Vaart £13m