Arsenal ready to sell Fabregas – reports

Arsenal have abandoned efforts to keep skipper Cesc Fabregas who could be set for a return to Spanish giants Barcelona, Spanish sports newspapers said yesterday.

Gunners coach Arsene Wenger has allowed his skipper to leave on condition he does not sign with another English team, the Barcelona-based daily Mundo Deportivo said, quoting a conversation between the two.

But it warned that “negotiations between the two clubs will not be easy.”

Another paper, Sport, said “Arsenal believes that the player’s departure is inevitable” and his representatives were expected in Barcelona yesterday to hear the “demands” of the London club.

It said Arsenal could ask for up to €50 million for the 24-year-old midfielder, a star of Spain’s 2010 World Cup-winning squad.

Wenger, though, had insisted last month that he was determined to spend a second successive summer fighting off mighty Barcelona to keep Fabregas at the Emirates.