dayokanu:

Arsenals moment of glory in the past half decade has only been in pre season games

Arsène Wenger insists that the stories surrounding Cesc Fabregas moving to Barcelona have to stop.

The Spanish midfielder has been consistently linked with a move to the Nou Camp throughout the summer. Arsenal put out a strongly-worded statement when the issue first arose but the story has just not gone away.

Speaking after Saturday's 4-0 victory over Barnet, Wenger re-affirmed his desire to keep Fabregas and outlined that he and Sandro Rosell, the new Barca president, had found a common understanding.

"There was a lot of unneeded talk," he said. "It is not pleasant to read this every day. Now, the story has to stop.

"Cesc is our captain, he is so important to us and we want to keep him, that is why we were not listening to any offers.

"It was not a problem of money, just the desire to keep him at the club.

"We can only influence our own behaviour, and I believe things have now gone straight again with Sandro Rosell. We always had a consistent attitude and were always reluctant to talk about Cesc's departure.

"It is very important we give the impression that because somebody wants a player from us, we don't just give in," he went on.

"We have shown our love and care for Cesc since the start. I believe Cesc loves the club, has shown his attachment to the club many times and I am very confident the story will end there. We want Cesc to be part of our club next year, and that is it.

"What we want is to build a team for the future, to develop our team and are not in any talks for next year or the year after - we want our players to be focused on the targets we have at the Club."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expects defenders William Gallas and Mickael Silvestre to leave the Emirates, but has also played down talks of signing Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Both Gallas and Silvestre are out of contract at the Gunners and have yet to decide on their futures.

In recent times, Gallas has been linked to Serie A club Juventus, while Silvestre has been touted for a move to Spanish outfit Malaga.

It is believed Sol Campbell’s future is also in doubt and Wenger has hinted the trio will leave the Emirates in the coming weeks.

"I believe that Gallas and Silvestre will sign somewhere else," Wenger told Sky Sports. "Sol Campbell is still in no man's land at the moment."

Arsenal have also been linked to goalkeeper Schwarzer but when asked about whether he was interested in such a deal happening, Wenger responded with “not really.”

He added: "We are still looking at various situations, but I would not like to come out on any individuals."

Wenger is yet to decide on his first choice 'keeper for the start of the season after Manuel Almunia missed the pre-season friendly win at Barnet on Saturday.

He continued: "At the moment, in pre-season, there is no No.1 - you have to give a chance to everyone to show how good he is. You cannot decide that today."

agabaI23:

He has 4 years left in his 5 years contract.

duduspace:

Serious rumors are emanating of Eduardo moving to Shaktar for 7.5m, if this is true, that is some good business yet again by Arsene, a bit of a pity Eduardo couldn't get to his pre-injury levels.
European U19s is on Eurosport and Tom Cruise is playing as a holding MF for England against Austria who have DK's much touted David Alaba in their team, I must say that they've been moving the ball better than England who've just scored thru Frank Nouble (formerly of West Ham)

PUYOL has told Arsenal to show Cesc Fabregas some respect and allow him to join Barcelona.

Fabregas, 23, has been the subject of intense interest from the Spanish champions, who had a £29million offer for him rejected last month.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has ruled out the possibility of allowing his captain to leave the Emirates.

But Barca defender Puyol — who along with Fabregas was part of Spain's victorious World Cup squad — says the midfielder should be allowed to move back to the club where he started his career in order to win more silverware.

Arsenal have not won a trophy in five years and Puyol, 32, said: "I think Arsenal need to respect his class and show the same class by giving the guy who has given so much to them the move that he and his family want.

"He isn't just being deprived of moving to the best club in the world, more importantly, he is being deprived of coming home.

"He has tried everything to win trophies at Arsenal and when he sees the success so many of his Spanish team-mates are having at Barcelona, it's only natural that he should want to be a part of that."

Speaking to a Sunday newspaper, Puyol added: "Cesc is the future of Barcelona and Arsenal can't do anything to stop that.

"I have just spent six weeks with him and there is only one club he wants to be at."

proudly9ja:

I personally think Cesc should be stripped of the captain's arm band.

While I understand his wish to go back and play for Barca, I think he has not shown enough respect for the club. I want to believe if he had shut his compatriots up either privately or publicly, they wouldn't come out to say such rubbish against Arsenal.

And Barca should know we'l let him go once they finish paying what they owe us and they can afford to buy him at what we are ready to accept

proudly9ja:

I personally think Cesc should be stripped of the captain's arm band.
While I understand his wish to go back and play for Barca, I think he has not shown enough respect for the club.

proudly9ja:

I personally think Cesc should be stripped of the captain's arm band.

While I understand his wish to go back and play for Barca, I think he has not shown enough respect for the club. I want to believe if he had shut his compatriots up either privately or publicly, they wouldn't come out to say such rubbish against Arsenal.

And Barca should know we'l let him go once they finish paying what they owe us and they can afford to buy him at what we are ready to accept