FC Barcelona Plays Dirty

For all the champagne football, for all the great players, and for all the titles they have won in the last few years, FC Barcelona have proved that they too are not above playing dirty when it comes to signing a player.

All this time Barcelona were the clean club, the ones who respected other clubs when it came to transfers. But with their farcical pursuit of Cesc Fabregas, they have made a mockery of the transfer process.

It is quite beyond me as to why they want Fabregas in the first place. If the World Cup was any indication, barring an injury to Xavi or Iniesta, it is unlikely that he will be given a starting berth in the squad. It seems more like Barcelona cannot digest the fact that they let go of a gem and now want him back.

This is how a clean transfer works: X club has a player, which Y club would like to see playing in their squad. Y club discreetly contacts X club to ask if the player is for sale. If X agrees to a sale, they name their price and the negotiations take place. 

But the style of transfer popularized by the likes of Chelsea (though to be fair, they don't do this now) and, of course, Real Madrid, is they would announce to the media that they want the player. They will do their best to unsettle him. Then they would put in a bid to the club irrespective of whether the club wishes to sell him or not.

By this time, the player himself might start nursing the desire to play in the other club and with continuing media reports that he wants to leave, he might himself ask his manager to let him go. Nobody wants a player who feels the need to play in another club, so off he goes.

This was obviously the process by which Ashely Cole, Christiano Ronaldo, and so many others left their old clubs.

FC Barcelona never indulged in this. But now, for some unknown reason they have done this. One of the promises during the election of club president made by both the front-runners was bringing Fabregas back.

So they cry out to the media that they are going to get him. Then they put in a ridiculously low bid of 30 million pounds. When they are turned down, they make their players give interviews to the media about how much Fabregas misses his home town during the world cup.

It is just plain misfortune that the first 11 in the Spanish squad consists of seven Barcelona players who are ready to spend their free time trying to convince him to leave.

Add to this the visit of Pep Guardiola, Fabregas' boyhood hero, who went to "wish the squad good luck" and also FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell who again announced to the media that he wanted to meet Arsene Wenger, as if Wenger would have allowed him to interrupt his other work at the World Cup.

This is just shameful behavior by a club that once adhered to the code of fairness and respect for other teams and players.

If Arsenal willingly sells Fabregas, it is a different matter. But if this is the way Barcelona goes about it, they will just end up losing the respect of football fans worldwide.

They certainly have lost mine.