A report from Spain which has been pounced on by the Daily Mail claims that Arsenal have entered talks with Barcelona over the transfer of Hector Bellerin.

jim parsons laughing

If this report is true I will eat my hat, and it’s a quite nice, red one, that was a present, so I don’t make this offer lightly.

More likely what is going on here is the start of Barcelona’s latest attempt to unsettle an Arsenal player they let go and now want back. Identifying Bellerin as a long-term replacement for Danni Alves now rather than when they actually had him at the club, we know how this goes having been through it all before with Cesc Fabregas.

Eventually, applying unrelenting pressure from every conceivable angle, Barcelona got what they wanted. A few years later, they threw it away again.

Sport in Spain, where this report appeared with a massive, full-page WOOOHOOO are Barcelona’s media mouthpiece. Based in Barcelona, their motives are always very clear.

sport

It says, “Barcelona have met with Arsenal to plan his transfer, which is a priority.

“Blaugrana are sure that the transfer could reach £35m due to the interest of other teams.”

Let’s also not forget that Hector has just signed a new six-year deal and has repeatedly said he has no desire to return to Barcelona unlike Fabregas who never hid his desire to return home one day.

There were reports recently that Barcelona had met with Bellerin’s ‘entourage’ but that is most definitely a different kettle of fish to meeting with Arsenal to start negotiations.

Still smells fishy to me.