Arsenal reject Barca's bid to sign Fabregas

Arsenal rejected Barcelona's opening bid in the fight to land Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas yesterday.

Fabregas has made it clear to Gunners manager Arsene Wenger that he wants to rejoin Barca before the start of next season and the Spanish champions have declared their interest by making a "serious" offer for the Arsenal captain.

However, Wenger has no intention of losing Fabregas and re-sponded to Barca's bid with a strongly-worded statement calling on Josep Guardiola's team to drop their interest in the player.

"Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is under contract with the club until the summer of 2015. He is a highly valued member of the team and part of our future plans," the Arsenal statement read.

"We have followed recent speculation linking Cesc. On Tuesday, we received an offer from Barcelona for Cesc and in response, we immediately and resolutely told them once again that we have no intention of selling our captain."

"To be clear, we will not make any kind of counter-proposal or enter into any discussion."