Barcelona are preparing to fund their £50million swoop for Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas by offering David Villa to Chelsea and Manchester City.
The Catalans' finances are such that they will need to sell some of their players to raise the required fee for Fabregas. And Villa's potential £40m transfer has been earmarked for the move.
The World Cup winner, 29, joined Barca only 13 months ago in a £35m switch from Valencia and bagged 23 goals for Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering team last term.
Guardiola is reluctant to lose Villa, but would sanctions Spain's all-time top goalscorer if the money could be used to prise Fabregas away from the Emirates.
'Guardiola has a list of players he is prepared to move on to give him more spending power in the transfer market, but Villa is definitely not on that list,' a source revealed.
'Ideally, he wants to keep Villa – especially after the impact he made in his first campaign with Barca. He sees David as a big player as his side push for more trophies next season.
'But he also knows that he may have to sacrifice Villa to finance incoming deals. And Manchester City and Chelsea would be very happy to buy Villa.'
Barcelona are in the process of trying to reduce their rising debts. In announcing a reduction in the amount the club owe, Javier Faus, the club's vice-president of the finance department said: 'The gross debt has been reduced from £474m to £429m, and the net debt from £383m to £324m.
'We want to decide our future and to do so we must reduce the debt to acceptable levels.'
