Arseblog has done an exclusive interview with Cesc, available to listen to on his podcast:
Great interview if anyone wanted to listen 
And we absolutely should have taken him back. A player of that quality was exactly what we needed to raise the quality of our midfield to what was required for Wengerball. Cazorla, Cesc and Özil would have been orgasmic levels of creativity and midfield guile / intelligence.
The fact he killed it at Chelsea and banged so many assists still hurts to this day. He is our legend but won a fucking PL with those cunts.
9 Likes
Did he confirm why he went i.e Wenger didn’t want him ?
Cesc had it written in his contract as a clause that Arsenal had first option for a week when Fabregas couldn’t speak to any other club but Arsenal if he ever was going to leave Barca. He really wanted to go back and asked but they snubbed him and didn’t reply.
So as he wanted to go back to London and the PL he joined Chelsea.
1 Like
Not the first time our stupidity re: transfers fucked us over. And not the last either. 
1 Like
The way he left, left a very sour taste.
3 Likes
I didn’t like the way he left and I didn’t want him back at the time. He had one season of good football for Chelsea, then what? If he would have returned to Arsenal we would be begging for him to be sold a year or two after.
2 Likes
That would be overkill. We needed another Sanchez in stead of Cesc that summer. Or a proper striker in stead of Giroud.
2 Likes
True.
We already had Ozil. Signing Cesc would have veen stupid. Particularly when you consider what a snake he can be behind the scenes
1 Like
Cheers Cal was already aware of why just wondering if he explained in the podcast his view - im pretty sure we don’t know the real reasons !!
1 Like
He did explain his view on a lot of things. I don’t want to ruin it as it’s better you get to listen yourself. Give it a listen mo 
2 Likes
Yea it’s a really good listen in fairness. I never really thought bad of him for going to Barca and after hearing this even less so.
7 Likes
Harsh to say only Nasri and van Persie were on his level, but probably true. It’s really no surprise they all wanted to leave as soon as they could.
1 Like
Nahh, I was totally against his comeback at that time…
I just can’t see how could you assemble a functioning, balanced midfield with him, cazorla and ozil. Obviously you’d have more than enough creativity, but what about defensive balance, runners into space, direct pacy players, etc… That was before cazorla even started playing as a CM, and it took him a while to settle there, and learn the defensive positioning… You’d have to push Ozil out on the wide where’s he’s not that effective… One of cazorla or cesc would have to play deeper, and that would leave us very exposed defensively… With a monster DM to cover for them, and with an extra direct player up front/wide (like Auba for example), it could work, but with Cesc alone at that time we wouldn’t get much in the end imo.
Arsenal were on decline and he would have been a luxury who would have had limited impact and Wenger was finished.
Worked out well for him in the end.
Just listened to the podcast. The bit where Cesc says Xabi Alonso was begging to join us 
Imagine if we’d had Fàbregas and Alonso in midfield together. Sexy!
3 Likes
Alonso is one of my favourite ever non-Arsenal players. Class act on and off the pitch.
Long range passing ability is untouchable from the players I’ve seen in my lifetime. Better than Scholes, Pirlo, Fabregas, Xavi, Beckham etc. His ability to hit a ball 40+ yards exactly where he wanted it to go was just mind blowing.
1 Like
Alonso Song Cesc would have been an amazing midfield.
With Arteta there as a depth option too.
A shame Wenger kept getting in his own way then, and the board were being stupid money hoarders.
Was that around the time Rafa was looking to replace him with Barry? What was all that about 
I mean, Gareth a decent player, but not on Xabi’s level
Listening to the podcast right now.
Man it’s criminal that we didn’t equip him with similar level players and even more criminal to not get Xabi who was desperate to come in.
Xabi Alonso would have solved so many things for us.
I never stopped liking him and this further confirms my gut about how things went down with him.