Fabregas on brink of Barca switch

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is on the verge of completing his long-awaited move to European champions Barcelona.

Reports emerged on Friday that the 24-year-old will fly to Barcelona by the end of the weekend after the clubs hammered out the finer details of an agreement believed to be worth an initial 35 million euros plus a further five million euros in potential add-ons.

Barcelona stars Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol pre-empted an official announcement by posting on Twitter, welcoming Fabregas back to the Camp Nou, where he started his career in the youth team before moving to Arsenal in 2003.

“Welcome home!!! Happy to have you here,” Barcelona captain Puyol tweeted.

Pique added: “He’s finally here!!”

Reports in Spain suggest Fabregas has agreed a five-year deal and will join his new team-mates after Barcelona play the first leg of the Supercopa de Espana against Real Madrid on Sunday.

The developments come after Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Friday that Fabregas and Manchester City target Samir Nasri would not be leaving Emirates Stadium.

Wenger did confirm that neither player would feature in Saturday’s English Premier League opener at Newcastle.

Arsenal have shown a willingness to negotiate with Barcelona officials although the value of the deal falls well short of their 46-million-euro valuation of Fabregas.

Fabregas has agreed to forgo five million euros – one million euros for each of the five years of the contract that he has provisionally agreed with Barcelona – to push through the move back to his boyhood club.

Wenger is expected to be allowed to re-invest all the funds raised from the anticipated sales of Fabregas and Nasri.