Reports in Spain claim the Catalan club is unwilling to match the North London outfit's £50m valuation of the midfielder and are instead relying on the player's goodwill to force the club to slash a staggering 20% from the fee. Despite this recent development, Barcelona are still finding it extremely difficult to come up with their revised estimate of their youth product (a fee believed to be in the region of £40m). Currently their latest offer of £35m has been rejected by Arsenal, who feel they cannot be intimidated and short-changed at the same time.
Rumours doing the rounds in Spain insist that the 24-year-old has refused to resume full training with his colleagues prefering to spend more time in the gym and other club facilities, although Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger has envisaged the possibility of this scenario playing itself out in the summer -he's doing his best to ensure the midfield orchestrator of his team stays put at least for the approaching season.
Cesc is understood to have told his agent Darren Dein, not to entertain talks with other parties including Barcelona's fierce rival Real Madrid. A condition that may not be met by Arsenal who based on Wenger's advise turned down a 'very strong' offer from new Chelsea coach Andre Villas Boas. The French tactician is wary of strengthening either the Blues or the wealthy Citizens both of whom are more than willing to match his enormous price tag with action and afford the Spaniard the luxury of dictating their midfield proceedings next month.
