Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is ready to leave for Barcelona this summer. The London Evening Standard says the midfielder was due to have talks with manager Arsene Wenger in London, provided he could beat the flight restrictions imposed by the volcanic ash cloud and travel from Spain, where he was with the national squad. All indications are that he is ready to leave after seven years at the club.

Barca vice-president Rafael Yuste told a Catalonian radio station this morning that Fabregas wants to come back to the team where he was a junior and that the only obstacle remaining were the negotiations with Arsenal.

Wenger is determined to keep his most prized asset but unless Fabregas has a massive change of heart, he appears to have lost the battle. The 23-year-old has told close friends in Spain that it "breaks his heart to have to leave" but given the Gunners' lack of trophies over the past five years he feels it is now time to move on.