Cesc Fabregas and the secret deal! Arsenal paid captain £3m to stave off Barcelona interest

Arsenal have handed Cesc Fabregas a one-off £3million sweetener and upped his wages to £110,000 a week in a bid to keep him at the club, it has been claimed. With Barcelona heading the queue of European clubs eyeing the Spain midfielder, the Gunners are said to have agreed a wage-cap busting deal that increased his £80,000 a week salary.

Barca remain keen to re-sign a player who came through their academy, but Arsenal hope to retain their star after quietly sanctioning the mega-deal last summer, reports goal.com.

The club have been reluctant to match the spiralling wages paid out by some of their Barclays Premier League rivals and initially handed Fabregas an eight-year deal worth £60,000 a week in 2006, which included annual increases.

The £3m lump sum paid last summer would have effectively backdated his wages for the previous two years before his new level of pay kicked in. The deal would have been negotiated by Fabregas's agent Darren Dein, the son of former Gunners vice-chairman David Dein.

Arsenal will hope the hike is enough to see off the lure of Catalonia and a boardroom source is quoted by goal.com as saying: 'Arsenal have been loyal to Fabregas and believe he will be loyal to them.'He knows that he is young and Barcelona can wait.'

The increase would put Fabregas on £30,000 a week more than Andrey Arshavin and William Gallas, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£150,000) and Lionel Messi (more than £200,000) are Barcelona's top earners.