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LONDON.
Roman Abramovich plans to make a £50 million summer swoop for Cesc Fabregas.
Chelsea’s billionaire owner will try to hijack any Barcelona bid to land the Arsenal skipper.
Capturing Fabregas would be an even more astonishing Blues coup than the recent £50m British record signing of Fernando Torres from Liverpool.
Chelsea see the Spaniard as the ideal partner for Frank Lampard in the side’s engine room.
But Abramovich faces a huge task to convince the Gunners to part with their talismanic midfielder, who last year asked to be allowed to join Barca.
Emirates boss Arsene Wenger slapped on a £60m price-tag to stave off the Catalan giants and, in the end, he convinced his captain to stay.
Fabregas, though, was left with a bitter taste in his mouth. He felt Barcelona could have done more to convince Arsenal to sell, after he had taken the huge step of asking to leave in a face-to-face with mentor Wenger.
Fabregas explained in SunSport that returning home to play for his idol Pep Guardiola and alongside the world’s greatest players like Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta and Lionel  Messi was too good an opportunity for him to turn down.
Barca are expected to try again, though there are doubts they can afford the massive fee.
And it is their reluctance that might prove key in Chelsea’s efforts to snatch Fabregas.
The biggest obstacle could be his reluctance to cross London. A move to Stamford Bridge would be viewed as treason.
Fabregas has admitted he feels a huge debt to Wenger and Arsenal, so fans will hope for those reasons Abramovich will find it impossible to lure him away.
Then again, two weeks ago any Liverpool supporter would have said the same about Torres.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are set to sue a French TV station after it reported the dramatic 4-4 draw against Newcastle on Saturday was under suspicion of match-fixing.
The Gunners went 4-0 up at St James’ Park but only managed a draw after a stirring second-half comeback from the Magpies.
And France 2 over the weekend reported the Barclays Premier League clash was being looked at by Interpol over allegations of “strange movements of money.”
But Interpol yesterday denied the broadcaster’s claims insisting there was no such investigation, while the English Premier League have not been made aware of any betting irregularities in connection with the match.
And now the furious north London club is seeking advice over the allegations with a view to starting legal proceedings against the channel. And former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira has criticised the Gunners’ commitment after they let Newcastle off the hook in the eight-goal thriller at St James’ Park.
Vieira was shocked to hear Arsenal had blown a 4-0 lead to draw 4-4 against Alan Pardew’s team on Saturday, a result which would have seriously hindered their title challenge had Manchester United not suffered a shock defeat to Wolves. The Frenchman, now a member of Manchester City’s squad, told BBC Radio Five Live: “Like everybody else I was quite surprised. It does show that in football if you don’t work hard until the last minute, if you don’t have 100 percent commitment, anything can happen. Newcastle is still a difficult place to go to.
“I think Arsenal are still a great side, a fantastic team to watch. The fans have been a bit disappointed in the last few years but they have to keep believing in themselves because they’re still a good side.”
City’s win over West Bromwich on Saturday kept them in title contention, now a point behind second-placed Arsenal and five behind leaders United.
Vieira was an unused substitute at Eastlands, and acknowledged the quality of the players in City’s squad means they must aim to remain in the battle for Premier League end-of-season honours.
“I think when you play at a big club like City and when you look in our dressing room at the players involved in the team, the target has to be really high,” Vieira said.
“But from what happened at the weekend, you can see that anybody can beat anybody. We still believe in ourselves and we just have to keep believing in ourselves and try to win games”. — The Sun.