City rule themselves out of race for Spanish international.
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Manchester City have reportedly ruled themselves out of the running to sign Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas, giving cross city neighbours Manchester United a clear run at his signature over the summer, according to Sky Sports.
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The midfielder has been told that he no longer features in the club’s plans for the coming season as they look to replace him with Atletico Madrid star Koke.
Chelsea and Arsenal have also been credited with an interest, but City have now apparently ruled themselves out of the running by claiming that they have targets in other areas and will not be looking to bring him on board this summer.
Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has claimed that Barca are keen to offload Fabregas – but that he will not be returning to Arsenal.
“They have told Fabregas to look for a team – but Arsenal are not interested,” he said.
“Barca want at least 35m euros – he cost 40m – I think (Barca coach) Luis Enrique has concluded the way he played at Arsenal, he cannot play like that at Barca because it’s a more tactically disciplined team.
“Fabregas came to Barcelona and expected something else but what he saw was fans who weren’t all happy that he’d cost 40m euros having been developed at La Masia (Barcelona’s academy).
“But his stats were really good – he just didn’t have the unanimous love of the fans.
“There was a story in one of the Catalan papers on Monday afternoon saying that Chelsea and him have agreed to a deal – that’s not true – not yet anyway – but Chelsea are a team would suit him, as would Manchester United.”
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