It’s being widely reported in the media in Britain that Arsenal appear to have lost their long-running battle with Barcelona to keep club captain Cesc Fabregas. It’s understood that Fabregas formally told Arsene Wenger that he wants to leave the club and return to Camp Nou where he grew up as a trainee. He will join long term friends whom he grew up with, such as Gerard Pique and Leo Messi, and Barca’s newest signing David Villa.

Although a bitter blow to Wenger and all Arsenal fans, it can hardly be a surprise, and according to Guilleme Balague the Spanish football journalist, the same conversation was held last year, with Wenger managing to deflect Fabregas for another season at the Emirates. Even so, he must have known that such a moment was sure to arrive sooner rather than later.

Fabregas is under contract, and would therefore command a large transfer fee, and the coming weeks are likely to be spent settling on this rather than wrestling to keep the 23-year-old.

Arsene Wenger has made something of a speciality of selling on players at an enormous return:

All of these players, however, with the exception of Anelka, could be considered to be in the last phase of their careers, and if Wenger had not wanted to get rid of any of them, the large profits involved will have softened the blow.

Cesc, however, is still all about potential and the next years of his career promise to be even better than his seven years at Arsenal. Wenger has shown an stubborn will about rebuilding the club before after apparently devastating blows such as Vieira and Henry leaving. The question occurs, though, does he have the heart to do it again?