On Fabregas
Article by Kingsley OkiweluFollow e-Arsenal on Twitter!
There has been a lot of talk over the past few days, regarding the possibility of Cesc Fabregas making a return to Arsenal this summer. Excited as I am about the prospect, I have refrained from making any contributions one way or the other for the simple reason that I regarded the likelihood of Fabregas returning after having spent only two seasons with Barcelona to be rather far-fetched.
Why did I think Fabregas was unlikely to make a return? Well, considering that he has long been touted as the heir apparent to Xavi in the Barca midfield, it seemed rather improbable that Barca would let him go without having an immediate ready replacement at hand to replace Xavi. Secondly, it seemed to me that it would amount to a huge loss of face, if Fabregas, long regarded as “the one who got away” from the famous La Masia stables were suddenly let go after barely two seasons.
A couple of events in the last few days however, have made me reconsider. One of these is the hiring of Luis Enrique to replace Tarta Martino as the Barcelona Manager and his subsequent comments regarding the possible sale of Fabregas and other Barcelona players like Alexis Sanchez. Of course it’s dangerous to read too much meaning into a few sentences in response to questions fired at him at what was his first interview as the coach of Barcelona, but it was interesting that he failed to rule out the possibility of selling the former Arsenal player when the question was directly put to him. He didn’t categorically say that he was for sale either but I have to admit that I found his noncommittal response rather intriguing.
The other thing that got me thinking was the recollection that this was Barcelona, the team with the famous La Masia academy that has plenty of form when it comes to promoting from within and giving talented youngsters a chance. Even though Enrique gave the now customary disclaimers and warned people against making hasty comparisons with Pep Guardiola, his comments to the effect that players from the B-team would also be giving consideration immediately hinted at a possible return to the template so brilliantly executed under Guardiola which led to the integration of the likes of Messi, Busquets and Pique in the Barcelona first team. In other words, it’s quite possible that Enrique may be willing to jump over Fabregas and may see another La Masia graduate( I’m thinking Sergi Roberto), as a better proponent of the club’s famous Tiki Taka.
If the forgoing sequence of events should come to pass ( and I admit I’m engaging in some pretty wild speculation here), it’s becomes quite feasible to see the return of Fabregas to Arsenal as a distinct possibility. Which raises the question, do we really need him, considering the plethora of midfield options already available to Wenger. The answer to that question has to be no, but Wenger has certainly not been hampered by anything as mundane as necessity in making past purchases. It’s my humble opinion that the problem of having to fit in Fabregas into our midfield will be a nice one to have and we can cross the bridge when we get there. Besides if the Ozil purchase last season taught us anything, it’s that securing the signature of a huge talent can bring psychological benefits that hugely outweigh the individual on the pitch contributions of the player directly involved.
That and the supplementary side-effect that we would also be denying Manchester United from getting their clutches on another of our former prized assets should mean that getting this deal done is an absolute no brainer!
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As good as he is we would have to sell one of our other midfielders to accommodate him,
ReplyDeleteof all the midfiled talent arsenal possess, they are yet to match the raw talent of cesc fabregas. fabregas was able to control the pace of the game at arsenal like no other during his time and was equally comfortable in big as well as small games. of the current arsenal team only ramsey comes close to cesc both in industry and skill.therefore if AFC wants to improve the answer to whether they really need him is a straight forward YES. some say whose position is he going to take but in such a competitive spot is that the question to ask? the manger should simply have a pool of talent at his disposal from which to choose and from that he should pick the best performing. the idea that positions are owned is ludicrous and it leads to players taking things for granted and under perforiming. out of that pool who ever fails to make the grade should simply join the likes of bendtner and ship out - that way overall team AFC will continously improve.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need him. You forget how good he is. A class apart from anyone we have now - recall we bought arteta to replace him and he is nowhere near as good but still plays many games. If we have to sell to make way then I think I've already answered who could make way.
ReplyDeleteYou make the comment "....it would amount to a huge loss of face, if Fabregas, long regarded as “the one who got away” from the famous La Masia stables were suddenly let go after barely two seasons." The point was that it was a huge loss of face for Joan Laporta, who got a roasting from his peers in the Barca hierarchy and Laporta would have done anything to get Cesc back, just to show them the one-finger salute. That's now done and Laporta has gone, so the "loss-of-face" issue has gone away now.
ReplyDeleteCesc is world class, with a plethora of talents in many aspects of the game. He is also one of those talents, like Dennis Bergkamp, who commands respect from everybody working with him. He also has a bag-full of medals and clearly knows what it takes to be a winner. If we get the chance to bring him back, we simply must take it - we'll figure the rest out later.
Finally, the consensus has been that we miss out on the trophies because our squad is too shallow. Our competitors, such as Man City & Chelsea can bring world-class players off the bench whereas we only have callow youth. It does not make sense then to say that we have no room for another world-class talent in our squad.
THREE seasons with Barcelona, surely ?
ReplyDelete