Transfer Rumours
La Liga Review considers the claim, made by the former agent of Cesc Fabregas, that there is a clause in the player's contract that guarantees FC Barcelona will have first refusal on the player should he ever wish to leave Arsenal.....
Joseba Díaz, speaking last night on Onda Cero stated that "Barça have the rights to sign Cesc whenever Arsenal decide that they are going to sell him."
It is only in the last month or so that Fabregas ended his professional relationship with the agent who oversaw the player's defection, to Arsenal, from the youth set up at FC Barcelona back in 2003. The rumours circulating in Barcelona, as yet unconfirmed, are that Darren Dein - son of David Dein - has taken up the role of the player's representative.
Ramon Calderon pledged, whilst campaigning for the Presidency of Real Madrid, that he would bring Fabregas to the Bernabeu and although the player has always insisted that he would never leave Arsenal while Arsene Wenger remained there - that has never stopped the Spanish press from speculating wildly.
The Spanish press have always viewed Catalunya as Cesc's inevitable ulimate destination, and with the player's Barcelona supporting family living just up the coast from the city, in Arenys de Mar, speculation of a return to the club where he learned his trade has always provided the Spanish papers with plenty of copy.
Just how popular Joseba Diaz will be with Fabregas, and the countless other high profile Spanish players he represents, remains to be seen after he has seemingly revealed hitherto confidential material.
However, La Liga Review suspects that the former agent is being somewhat mischievous and, after days of being pestered to reveal what exactly has gone on between himself and the player, decided to have a little fun at the Spanish football media's expense.
For reasons far too numerous to mention, the likelihood of such a clause existing, on paper, is highly dubious: to begin with, the player left Barcelona without the club's consent - so why Arsenal would include such a clause in the player's contract (that has since been renewed) would seem a little strange. Furthermore, these types of clauses are often mooted in the gossip columns, but no such thing has ever been enforced at a Premiership club.
Zambrotta Returning to Italy?
A couple of other bits of transfer tittle-tattle that were doing the rounds in the press room at the Camp Nou today included the possible transfer of Gianluca Zambrotta to AC Milan. The 31 year old has never lived up to the very high expectations that Barcelona had when they signed him from Juventus in 2006.
Zambrotta was one of the stars of the World Cup in 2006 and joined a Barcelona side that had just won the Champions League and La Liga. However, Barcelona have been in decline ever since and the Italian has frequently been one of the players singled out for blame by the local press. Within the city it has been no secret that the player, and his wife, have never really settled and as this season has progressed, Zambrotta has found himself increasingly out of favour - with Carles Puyol preferred in the right back position.
A return to Italy and Serie A is said to be imminent.
Another rumour - and it is only a rumour as far as La Liga Review can make out - involves a swap deal with Inter Milan that would see Ronaldinho and Adriano trading places. The story has appeared in a number of Italian sources, but at present, nobody in or at Barcelona knows anything about it.
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