The last few years have seen Arsenal slowly build themselves back up from midtable mediocrity into one of the most exciting teams in Europe, and they've done so thanks to Mikel Arteta and a cohort of incredibly talented players.
Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Jesus are just some of the stars that have helped turn the Gunners into genuine Premier League title challengers and one of the most attractive destinations for talented and enterprising players.
However, based on a recent report, the North Londoners could be in for a fight to keep hold of one of their own stars in the years to come, in a potential transfer reminiscent of Cesc Fàbregas' over a decade ago.
Arsenal transfer news
According to a report late last week from Steve Kay of Football Transfers, Barcelona are plotting 'an ambitious project' that will attract the world's best players back to the Catalans over the next three years.
This plan is based on a lucrative new kit deal with Nike that is supposedly set to land the La Liga giants around €150m a season, which converts to a cool £127m.
The two primary targets for this plan named in the report are Manchester City's inhuman goal machine Erling Haaland and Arsenal's defensive titan William Saliba.
Luckily for the Gunners, their much-improved stature in world football over the last few years and Barcelona's falling reputation and precarious financial situation make this potential scenario look unlikely – at least for a few seasons.
However, if the Blaugrana's plan does come to fruition, and they can inject massive amounts of money into the first team, it could start to feel reminiscent of Fàbregas' transfer saga all those years ago.
Saliba's parallels to Fàbregas
It feels like a lifetime ago that Arsenal paid Saint-Étienne £27m for Saliba, and in the world of football, five years is pretty much a lifetime.
In the years that followed, the Frenchman was sent out on loan to Les Vertz, Olympique de Marseille and OGC Nice before finally being given a chance to play for the Gunners on the opening day of the 2022/23 season – a game away to Crystal Palace in which he won the Player of the Match award.
He'd go on to make 33 appearances for the North Londoners and play a key role in their surprising title charge, for which he was awarded a brand new four-year £190k-per-week contract.
It was more of the same last season, although, without any injury setbacks, he started 100% of the club's league games and played 100% of the available league minutes, more than repaying his bumper pay rise.
He might still be just 23 years old, but as U23 scout Antonio Mango says, he's "one of the best in the world" and helped Arteta create the best defence in the league last season, so any talk of losing him to Barcelona in the future is far from ideal.
The last major and relatively young star the club lost to Barcelona was former Spanish international Fàbregas, who, at 24, joined the Catalan side in 2011 for around £35m.
Arsenal
303
57
94
0.49
Barcelona
151
42
50
0.60
Chelsea
198
22
57
0.39
AS Monaco
68
4
9
0.19
Como
17
0
2
0.11
The 37-year-old made 303 appearances for the Gunners in the eight years he spent with the club, scoring 57 goals and providing 94 assists, but as a Catalonian native, the call of the Blaugrana was too great, especially as they were in the midst of a truly golden period at the time.
However, that is Arsenal's major advantage should the La Liga side come calling anytime soon. They are nowhere near the appealing prospect they once were, while the Gunners have come on leaps and bounds and look destined to end their title drought in the coming seasons.
Ultimately, the two major Spanish teams have always pillaged the best players from the Premier League, but with English football becoming increasingly dominant in recent years and the positive progression under Arteta, Arsenal have a chance to stop a Fàbregas repeat and keep Saliba at the Emirates for years to come.
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