Barca pursuit of Arsenal star Adebayor is fuelled by Laporta's survival

Laporta was backed by just 37.75 per cent of the nearly 40,000 Barca members that voted. The campaign against his presidency, brought by Barca member Oriol Giralt, failed by only six per cent to get the necessary two thirds of the vote required to force an election.

Barca bound? Emmanuel Adebayor is a target for the Catalan giants.

Should Laporta have been ousted Barca’s moves in the transfer would have been paralysed, with the club forced to install an interim board of directors while a two month electoral campaign took place.

But Laporta’s victory means he will remain as president until 2010 and Barca are free to press ahead with their move for Adebayor. Arsenal remain intent on squeezing every penny out of the Catalan giants having already rejected an offer of £24million for the Togo international striker last week.

But with Barca now primed to make a ‘take it or leave it’ offer of up to £30m for Adebayor, decision time is fast approaching for Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal manager is known to be displeased with the conflicting messages coming from Adebayor over his future and the opportunity to make a profit of over £25m on the player he signed from Monaco in January 2006 will prove extremely tempting.

Wenger admitted yesterday that the burden of meeting the payments for the £360m Emirates Stadium means he will have to sell a big name player every season for the next 17 years.

Even so, the profit he would generate from the sale of Adebayor would leave plenty in the kitty to sign a replacement. Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz remains top of Wenger’s list, despite reports linking Arsenal with a move for Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, while Newcastle’s Obafemi Martins is another option.

Andrei Arshavin’s wage demands and an asking price in the region of £20m are likely to rule him out of a move to Arsenal, with Chelsea and Barca leading the race for the Zenit St Petersburg playmaker’s signature.

Laporta’s victory could also see Alexander Hleb finally complete a move to the Nou Camp, although the level of Barca’s spending will be dictated by how much they can bring in from the sales of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o.