I imagine I’m not the
only one who is feeling this way, but my god does it grind my gears to hear the
words ‘Cesc Fabregas’, ‘joining’ and ‘Manchester United’ in the same sentence,
especially when those suck-asses at Sky Sports News are practically gagging for
him to make Old Trafford his new stomping ground.
Just the sound of those words makes me want to bathe in a
bath of piranhas or staple my bottom lip to the kitchen table. Ok maybe that
wasn’t needed, but reading the coverage from media outlets who even have the
audacity to suggest that Cesc would join the David Moyes revolution (snigger) makes
me sick to my stomach.
If you were to believe Sky Sports then you would think that
Fabregas is desperate to join United, hates Barcelona, wouldn’t even consider a
return to Arsenal and that him ending up Manchester is the best possible thing
that could happen to this planet. Better than ending war, better than finding a
cure for cancer, better than the talent possessed by Kate Upton to look
devastatingly attractive in anything, everything and nothing.
From just reading Tweets, you can sense the smugness of
Manchester United fans about the thought that they are bidding for our former
hero. But that is all they are doing; bidding.
Well I’ve got news for you Mancs, YOU. WILL. NOT. SIGN.
FABREGAS.
Clear enough? Even for the thickest of United fans, I’m
pretty sure that the above statement is understandable.
Yes I know that we adored Robin van Persie and they snatched
him from us last year but those were completely different circumstances. The
Dutchman had one year left on his deal, didn’t look to be signing a new one,
and United gave us a cracking transfer fee for him. Hell, he had even said that
he wanted to stay after we had recruited Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and
Santi Cazorla, but there was too much water under the bridge at that stage.
Fabregas is different. Completely different. And not only do
I think that Cesc would reject the chance to move to United, but I believe that
he will in fact be an Arsenal player before the end of August.
Why I hear you say? Well, I’ll tell you.
Gunners Town Top 5: Reasons why Cesc Fabregas will return to Arsenal this summer
5. Home Sweet Home?
When Fabregas left us in 2011 to return “home” to the Camp
Nou, it was easy to understand his reasoning. He didn’t leave for money or
after a falling out with the club or anything like that. He wanted to play for
the team that he had grown up dreaming of playing for. Barcelona gave him the
chance, and Arsenal reluctantly accepted it.
It’s no secret that Cesc was, and probably still is, a huge
fan of then-manager Pep Guardiola, and he was a fan of the Arsenal skipper. He
was deployed in a role that he was in favour of and everything seemed to be
going well for Fabregas.
However, that all changed once Guardiola decided to jack it
in and pack his bags for New York. In came Tito Vilanova, and in came the
change of the Catalan life of Fabregas. Proceedings at the club weren’t the
same for Cesc once Pep left, and he was frequently played out of his comfort
zone, and that’s even if he made it off the bench instead of being forced to
watch Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets hog the midfield berths.
Various statements have been released and repeated with
quotes from Cesc saying that he is happy, but what do you expect him to say?!
After he fought for so long to return to Barca, he is hardly going to wind up
the fans by kicking up a shit storm and demanding to leave.
Barcelona isn’t doing it for Cesc at the moment, and in all
likelihood, I’m not sure that will change in a hurry.
4. World Cup Year
Going back to the point about game time, and there isn’t a
year that is a more crucial occasion to be getting match action than the year
leading up to a World Cup. Cesc is being kept out of the Barca team by three of
his Spanish teammates, who are more than likely to occupy the midfield
positions for Vicente del Bosque’s team in Brazil.
While admittedly Barca have a lot of competition for places,
Spain has a lot more. You only have to look and see the likes of Mikel Arteta
and Juan Mata (at times) missing out on selection to realise just how
jam-packed with quality the Spanish midfield is at the moment. The list goes on
and on of quality players that are vying to play for La Roja, and Cesc
certainly faces a challenge to stake his claim for a spot.
He needs more game time than he is getting at Barca, and he
would be the first name on the team sheet should he come back to Arsenal.
Returning to North London represents the best chance for Fabregas to impress
before heading out to South America in 2014, and he knows that.
3. Money is no
problem
There are two sides to this reason. The first is the
well-documented fact that Arsene Wenger has a shed load of dough to blow this
summer. Whether you believe that we have the £100m transfer warchest or the
£70m transfer kitty, it is clear that we have financial power this window. I
couldn’t see Fabregas being sold for more than £40m, I’m not saying that he is
worth that, less or more, but that’s the fee I’d imagine it would take to prise
him away from Catalonia.
Secondly, we have a buy-back agreement with Barca. Whether
it is £25m or £35m I’m not entirely sure, but we certainly have a set fee that
we can trigger his release clause with.
Now this is the really interesting bit, this is where it
gets all good and juicy. Barca still owe us money. Money from the original sale
of Fabregas, as well as money for us giving them Alex Song last summer. It is
believed that they still need to pay Arsenal around £18m, so Wenger could potentially
need to part ways with just £7m. Leaving a HUGE amount of money at his disposal
to put towards other targets.
It’s doable alright.
2. Family Love for
London
If you didn’t already know, Fabregas has a new baby daughter. Cesc is head over heels in love with Daniella
Semaan and is a proud, proud father of daughter Lia. Daniella lives in London
and if you follow her on Instagram then you will have noticed that she couldn’t
think of anything better than for Cesc to move back to the English capital.
What’s more is that Cesc’s sister also recently moved over
to these shores, and isn’t expected to be the last Fabregas to do so. Cesc is
also a massive fan of London, and having just become married and a father, he
may want to settle down somewhere where they are all comfortable. From what
I’ve been told, Daniella has had enough of commuting to Barcelona and Cesc is so taken with
her that he may just grant her the wish she desires and relocate back to
London.
1. Once a Gunner,
Always a Gunner
Now to the main reason that Fabregas will be touching down
in N5 before long; he frickin loves Arsenal. He has frequently described Wenger
as a second father to him and absolutely loves the Frenchman to bits. He loves
the fans, the city, and everything about the club. You could tell that from the
way he played for us. He was proud to be the Arsenal captain, played with his
heart on his sleeve and with a burning passion to give his all for the cause on
the pitch.
He famously Tweeted before saying “Once a Gunner, always a
Gunner”, and you mean to tell me that he is going to be joining Manchester
United this summer? Behave. From what I’ve heard, his agent Darren Dein has
been pushing him to move to Old Trafford for the heavy-duty wonga that could
head his way, but Cesc is having none of it. He knows where his loyalties now.
Cesc has two teams in his life; one is Barcelona who he
thought was his home, the other is Arsenal who he has since realised is his
home.
It may not happen today, tomorrow or even this week but I’d
recommend that you put money on Fabregas pulling on the red and white of
Arsenal this year.
Do you agree? What do you think will happen to Cesc
this summer?
Let me know by Tweeting me or leaving a comment at
the bottom of the page.
Thanks for reading, and never forget that you’re a
Gooner.
Cheers,
Matt Cotton
Matt has been the editor of the site since June 2012 and was born into a Gooner family 21 years ago. He recently graduated from Southampton Solent University with a degree in Sports Journalism and strives to work in the Sports Media industry. As well as currently working as a reporter for Sports Mole and TIBS News, Matt has been providing football commentary for the visually impaired since 2008 at Arsenal, Exeter City and Wembley.
 
His earliest Gunners memory is watching the ‘Boring, boring Arsenal’ VHS as a six-year-old on repeat, to the extent where he could recite most of the commentary from that season. Matt was lucky enough to witness Arsenal lift the Premier League in 2002 as well as being present during the last match at Highbury in 2006, and at Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonial a few months later at the Emirates Stadium. Matt’s favourite players include Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Tony Adams, with the 5-3 comeback victory against Middlesbrough in 2004 the best match he has ever spectated.
 
Matt is an optimistic ’In Wenger we trust’, kind of guy and believes that the glory days are not too far away…
 
Apart from his editorial duties, Matt will also be bringing his Arsenal knowledge to a column called “Where Are They Now?” – which focuses on former Gunners.
Hard to take this blog seriously when you start with: "United gave us a cracking transfer fee for him. Hell, he had even said that he wanted to stay after we had recruited Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla, but there was too much water under the bridge at that stage."
What "Cracking Fee"??? ~25 mill for the number one striker in the league? Yes, he had one year left on his contract and still, the transfer fee was a joke, we lost that one big time!
Cesc does not have any reason to leave Barcelona (except for the personal reasons with his wife & daughter). Its one of the best teams in the world, competing for every title and has a lot of life long friends in the team. Arsenal sadly don’t even compete for the League Cup 🙁
With all the love in the world he would be stupid to return.
You’re seriously recommending people to put money on this? At 3/1, how much would you recommend putting on, exactly?
Interesting points, but dare I say it, do Arsenal even need Fabregas at this moment in time? With other areas of the squad looking somewhat threadbare (as much as I love Arteta, he’s not exactly a true anchor man), would the money best be spent elsewhere? Even if the fee might only total £7m, surely the resulting loss of future sales income from Barcelona would affect the overall transfer budget?
The only way I could see him fitting in the squad now, would be to displace Carzola in central midfield, shifting him onto either wing, freeing Poldi and Walcott to play more games up front.
Actually, thinking about it, given most fans disdain for Suarez and the lack of realistic top-level alternatives, maybe shifting Carzola onto the wing isn’t the worst of ideas anyway. Plus, a large chunk of the £50m Suarez would cost could purchase all four of Fabregas (if you are correct), Fellaini (who can play any of the three central midfield positions), a central defender such as Williams and an experienced keeper such as Cesar. The only problem with that is can Poldi or Walcott play up front on their own?
The real reason Cesc will not go to Utd is money, more than anything else. Arsenal were very smart on forming the deal with Barca. As I understand it, Arsenal have a 50% sell on fee, and a buy back clause at up to 25M. So for it to make financial sense for Barca to sell, means it would take a bid over 50M to get Cesc to leave. Lets run through the math. Utd buy Cesc at 40M. 20M has to go to Arsenal and 20M go to Barca (who I believe still owe 6M on the player, further enhancing the argument). That would leave less than 20M to Barca. Why would they do that deal when they could just sell him to us for 25M – whatever they owe? I know there is a romantic notion that the player will only want Arsenal, and Arsenal is still in his heart. But we all know money talks in this game. See RVP, an Arsenal fan as a boy, left simply because of the money and lack of trophies. If Cesc wants to leave, Barca will really only have one choice to sell him, unless a bid of over 50M comes in. And Cesc is not worth 50M. Again, money has spoken. It was good Arsenal put these clauses in when they did the deal for Fabregas to Barca.
It would be nice but Fab will stay with Barca in my opinion.
Cesc Fabregas was one of the most ambitious players at Arsenal. He played every game with the objective of winning trophies (at least in premier league). Towards the end his frustration was conspicuous at failing again and again. Barcelona came in with all the tapping up and blunt desperation, being the best team in the world at that point. So he left. Not because it was his childhood team, but because he wanted to be in the best team winning trophies. That was the real reason he left in my opinion, people can delude themselves all they want.
That’s about him. About me personally, I worshiped Cesc Fabregas at one point. Even more than Henry or Bergkamp. I was completely obsessed with him. I had the hardest of time when he left us. Whatever may be his reasons, he chose Barca over Arsenal. He was once a hero, now he is just another player. I have no expectation of him like a once had. That expectation broke away the day he left, and so I don’t understand why gooners still hold pride on saying "Cesc would never go to United". I give a rat’s ass. Am I alone in thinking that way?
Just to reiterate, my point is not whether he would or would not join United, but why should we care about his decisions when he is no longer our player?