Fabregas ready to talk tough with Arsenal

TheArsenal board are steeling themselves for tough contract negotiations with Cesc Fabregas after it emerged the Spanish midfielder's new agent is Darren Dein, son of the club's estranged former vice-chairman, David Dein.

Fabregas is already committed to Arsenal until 2014, but the club recognise the need to tie him to an improved deal in keeping with his status as one of the finest young players in the world - and to ward off Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Tentative talks began earlier this year and the Arsenal board were then furious when they found out that Fabregas sacked his Spanish agent, Joseba Diaz seven weeks ago and replaced him with Darren Dein.

Their misgivings are two-fold. The board's acrimonious relationship with Darren's father is well known after he was forced out of the club last year and then teamed up with Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who has acquired a 24.2 per cent stake in the club.

It is understood the board feel the fall-out from that split could now impact on the negotiations with Fabregas. He also represents his friend Thierry Henry - Dein was best man at Henry's wedding - and struck a hard bargain when the former Arsenal striker was weighing up whether to move to Barcelona two years ago. The switch was finally completed 14 months later.

Analysis of Arsenal's accounts has shown that, incredibly, Henry was paid the equivalent of £200,000 a week during his final season in north London, when Dein senior was in charge of contract negotiations.

Henry received a £5 million signing-on fee when he put pen to paper on the four-year deal, which was topped up by a £5 million salary.

The deal was approved at board level but there was anger among some of the directors that the signing-on fee had not been spread out over the entirety of the contract.

There are fears that Arsenal may need to offer Fabregas a similarly lucrative package to keep him.

He was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year this season and has inherited Henry's status as the club's talisman.

Fabregas has been given his own television show, which has been commissioned and created by his sponsors, Nike, and was broadcast on Sky Sports last week.

The midfielder's existing agreement, which has annual increments built in, is believed to be worth around £60,000 per week, which leaves him short of the club's top earners, William Gallas and Arsene Wenger, the manager, who earn salaries of £4 million.

Fabregas and his advisers are seeking a new deal that will replace the terms of his existing agreement.

Although Arsenal have a strict wage structure and were unwilling to make Mathieu Flamini the club's top earner, they are prepared to give more ground to Fabregas, who was plucked from the Barcelona academy and has made huge strides since making his debut for the club as a 16-year-old.

Talks will centre on the terms rather than the length of the deal but it is likely that Fabregas will be seeking around £100,000 a week to reflect his 'Galactico' status.

Wenger has a big say in contract talks and he insisted earlier this month that the Spaniard would mature into the finest midfielder in the world.