Emirates side keen on Nou Camp bit part player.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is chasing Barcelona midfielder Ibrahim Afellay. The Daily Star Sunday says Barca boss Pep Guardiola is ready to flog the talented Dutchman, 24, who has failed to make the breakthrough at the Nou Camp.
Afellay moved to Barcelona from PSV Eindhoven in the January transfer window for just £3million as his contract was set to run out at the end of the season. Guardiola would like to use the Holland international as a makeweight to snare Gunners ace Cesc Fabregas in the summer.
But an Emirates source insisted: “Afellay is a young and gifted player but he won’t be part of a deal for Cesc going to Barca.”
SOURCE: Tribalfootball
Clearly when former PSV Eindhoven star Ibrahim Afellay finally made his long and protracted move to Barcelona the Dutch international would have expected life to be tough and the pursuit of first team football a difficult one but apparently the 24 year old didn’t think it would be this tough. Having arrived for a knock down fee in January the talented playmaker who can play in the centre of more predominantly out wide, has barely had a look in.
To date Afellay has started just one La Liga game and has seen a grand total of 12 minutes Champions League action. His outings have pretty much set aside for Copa Del Rey action and it doesn’t look like he is going to get much of a look in for the coming future given the talent that lies ahead of him.
Arsene Wenger wanted to land Afellay when he was at PSV and will try again to nab the Utrecht born star and some sources believe that Pep Guardiola will consider offers of around £9m which would represent a good investment by the Catalan club and also seems a fair price for a player with great potential.
Clearly Arsenal have a number of players of a similar style and position to the Barcelona man but there have been many questions over the form of the likes of Andrei Arshavin, Tomas Rosicky and it seems that of the wide players in the Gunners armoury only Samir Nasri has actually been consistently effective, even young England international Theo Walcott has flitted in and out of form so a move for Afellay may be a wise one.
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