Barcelona looked to nudge their pursuit of Cesc Fábregas closer to a conclusion on Friday when the club's vice-president Josep María Bartomeu and director for football Raul Sanllehi travelled to London to renew negotiations for the midfielder, who did not join the Arsenal squad on a flight to Cologne.

But an increased bid understood to be around £33m is unlikely to get a positive response from the Emirates, with frustration growing as the season draws nearer and Barcelona still refuse to offer a figure more in line with Arsenal's £40m valuation. Arsène Wenger insisted there had been "no movement" .

With their main priority Alexis Sánchez finally tied up, Barcelona have turned their attention to Fábregas. Communication between the clubs has been reasonably fluid and although significant differences remain between the bids and Arsenal's expectations, Barcelona hoped their presence would convince Arsenal and Fábregas of their good intentions and willingness to negotiate further. Arsenal directors cannot understand why Barcelona have not made a more realistic bid, however.

Wenger is keen to achieve a swift resolution and would resist any bid late in the transfer window but he remains steadfast in his refusal to sell Fábregas at a fee significantly below £40m.

Bartomeu and Sanllehi also met representatives of Chelsea as they sought to close a £5m deal that would take the 19-year-old Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu to Stamford Bridge.

Barcelona continue to cling to their hope that Fábregas's desire to depart will force the issue and the midfielder is continuing to bring pressure to bear having made his intentions clear to Wenger. His absence from the trip to Germany has been officially attributed to an injury, just as his absence from pre-season games in Malaysia and China was.

Fábregas has so far not handed in a formal transfer request or spoken out in stronger terms. For his part, Wenger believes that his player's departure was always dependent on an acceptable bid and although Barcelona are creeping towards that, they remain some way off. Fábregas's position is one of increasing isolation as he awaits a Barcelona move that persuades Arsenal that it is worth selling him.

Barcelona's failure to reach Arsenal's valuation is explained by the economic difficulties they face. In simple terms Barcelona do not have the funds to launch a huge bid for Fábregas. They secured Sánchez for £25m plus £11m in variables, having previously announced their summer budget was £45m in total. Bojan Krkic has joined Roma for £12m as Barcelona try to scrape together the funds to end a saga of which many have grown weary.