Arsenal: Why Do Gunners Keep Getting Linked with Moves to Barcelona?

With the number of Arsenal players who've left Ashburton Grove for Catalunya, you'd think there was a Blaugrana travel agency adjacent to the Gunners' dressing room, hailing players with deals to leave cold, dreary London for hot, sunny Barcelona!

Marc Overmars, Emmaneul Petit, Thierry Henry, Alexander Hleb (ha, ha), and finally Cesc Fabregas. In American collegiate recruiting terms, this sort of exodus would be termed a "pipeline". Barcelona have mined this Arsenal link for years, taking full advantage of the players when they come out on the other end. Well, besides Hleb.

Now, to be fair, Henry was a special case, with the Frenchman allowed by Wenger to leave Arsenal in order to chase his dream of winning a Champions League trophy while the Gunners revamped their system by investing in youth to offset the exorbitant costs of moving to the gleaming Emirates stadium.

Hleb may still be dealing with the psychological effects of having played in Birmingham last season (one shudders at the prospect), but after an impressive '07-08 season with the Gunners, he has proceeded to fall off the footballing face of the earth after his move away from Ashburton Grove.

Fabregas—well, we all know that story, so I won't get into it again.

Yet besides the number of players who actually leave for Barcelona, it seems there are far more stories that list potential moves. Headlines have blared in recent seasons.

Andrei Arshavin lists Barcelona as dream destination. Benik Afobe linked to Barcelona advances.

The latest in this rather unsettling line of rumors is Gunners No. 1 keeper Wojciech Szczesny, who has said that if he were to ever leave Arsenal, it would not be for more money.

It would be for Barcelona.

Interesting trend, seeing as how Arsene Wenger lowered Arsenal's asking price for Fabregas, so that the former Catalan youth product could seal his move in August. Apparently, with the Blaugrana, it's not about the money. Well, it is, but they don't want you to believe that, so the transfer price will drop.

It's a worrisome trend, no matter how you sort the angle of this Szczesny article. Of course it's sensationalism, with a journalist looking for a headline that would generate the greatest number of hits (wait a second...).

Szczesny did offer the Barcelona move himself, but he likely wouldn't have if the question had been phrased differently. One can glean how the query must have been phrased by reading the Pole's response—there is a vestigial imprint of a question about if he'd like to play elsewhere some day.

When things go bad at Arsenal—ie. this season—the articles linking players away from the Emirates gather speed like some onrushing avalanche.

Heck, when things were going considerably better at the club, it still seemed there were rumors every week of players leaving the club. Remember the ice cream fiasco with Hleb in Milan during the 2008 Champions League Round of 16?

Is it just me, or does it seem like Arsenal are subject to an inordinate amount of these sensational headlines? At some point, every article about a player ends with—"while he's enjoying his time at Arsenal, if he were ever to move away it would be to....(insert a 'better' footballing club here.)"

Infuriating, to say the least. But then, Arsenal have done themselves no favors when one thinks of the amount of players they've let go over the course of past seasons.

In the case of Szczesny, this rumor will likely fall flat. But it appears the wheels are now churning. Expect the next story linking him away in a matter of days.