Cesc Fabregas has insisted that at no point over the summer did he want a move to Manchester United.
The Barcelona midfielder was heavily linked with a transfer to Old Trafford during the off-season, with the Premier League club themselves making public their bids for the Spain international.
But the player himself as told The Guardian that he never thought about leaving Camp Nou.
“I never planned to go back [to England] this summer,” he told Sid Lowe. “It's not something I was even thinking about. I was always clear in my mind that I want to succeed at Barcelona and I'd give everything to triumph here.
“I said openly: I haven't even thought about leaving, I'm not going. I heard about it when I was in Ibiza with friends. A friend read it in the paper and told me, then I read it …
“When I heard, I contacted Darren [Dein, my agent] and he confirmed that it had come out officially. He said: "Yes, it's true." He said: "What do you want to do?" I didn't know anything about it [until then]. If a club comes in for you and you tell your representative that you want to go, then you go. I spoke to [Josep Maria] Bartomeu, the vice-president, and he told me: "You're not going anywhere; we have complete confidence in you." Then I spoke to the president. I was very relaxed about the whole thing because that's what they transmitted to me.
“It's true that they had offers, and they told me that, but the only thing in my head was staying at Barcelona.
“At no time did I say that I wanted to go and I stayed out of it. I was surprised. I didn't encourage them at all.”
