Arsenal say no to £27m Fabregas bid

Arsenal have reportedly rejected a bid of around £27 million for Cesc Fabregas from Spanish giants Barcelona.

The Catalan side have been chasing the midfielder for the last two summers and many now believe that this will be the year the 24-year-old finally returns to his boyhood club.

Fabregas grew up at Nou Camp club, idolising coach Pep Guardiola but was snapped up by Arsenal as 16-year-old on a free transfer. Since then he has become arguably the finest midfielder in the Premiership, skippering Arsenal for the last three seasons but many believe his time has come to leave the Emirates club. Those placing an online bet will be keeping an eye on where he's going.

Fabregas himself has continually stated his desire to move back to Spain and having previously turned down a bid of around £35 million last year the Gunners have once again turned down Les Cules advances.

Despite their continued success over the last three seasons, Barca are currently in huge debt and are unwilling to pay over the odds on players. The club's finances are in such trouble that next season the team's shirts will carry a sponsor for the first time in their 112 year history, after the side previously sported Unicef on their jerseys with the club making numerous donations to the charity as well as taking part in aid work and raising awareness of world poverty.

Guardiola is reported to have a transfer budget of around 45 million euros and having reportedly already bid the majority of that on Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez will have to sell a number of his stars in order to generate more funds. Those following the betting should bear this in mind.

However, according to Barca president Sandro Rossell, neither the club nor the coach are prepared to pay more than what they believe the player to be worth.

"Guardiola knows the values of players and Cesc's is less than 40million (euros)” he told the Catalan station TV3. “Barcelona will offer less and if they (Arsenal) don't accept, then he won't come. Pep knows the club is not well-off in terms of money."