He was most definitely up there with the best of them in the Scholes/Lampard/Gerrard days of the PL. I don’t recall anyone really saying anything other than great things about him until he left.
It’s only after he left and didn’t get better that I noticed people starting to downplay what he did in England for Arsenal.
15 goals 13 assists in 2100 minutes in 09/10 like what
None of them are in his league. He has more PL assists than any of them despite playing between 150 and 250 less games.
In terms of assists Cesc is 1 in 3, Gerrard is 1 in 5, Lampard is 1 in 6 and Scholes was 1 in 10.
That let’s Cesc off the hook way too easily. His bleating about wanting to leave, his bullshit trip to the Grand Prix, fuck that. Even the shirt stunt. Want to leave? Fine. But if you love the club, really love it like he pretends to, you’d want to club to be in a healthy place when you leave. He didn’t care because he was already thinking about playing with his buddies back in Barcelona. I’m glad it didn’t work out for him in a big way with lots of trophies, I’m still mad about the way he conducted himself. He should have done it differently.
Mate, that’s like being mad your player has pushed from a move from the Championship to the PL champions. The gap was that big. The club could have dug their heels in.
Levy would not have sold Cesc for small change. He’d tell Cesc and Barce to go and fuck themselves.
Gerrard and Lampard are 100% in the same category, those 2 were fucking immense.
Scholes is so overrated. Obviously great but he’s not tier 1 for me.
IIRC Thiago Silva basically told Milan he’d leave it was financially advantageous for them. Ronaldo only had one buyer but didn’t do anything to drive his price down.
Arsenal handled it poorly but Cesc backed them into a corner. I believe he would have gone on strike if we didn’t let him move for peanuts.
I’m not a forgive and forget guy so maybe this debate is pointless.
It kind of did though…if he stayed he would have never won three League titles. Even if two of those are with Chelsea.
If he didn’t play the dirty game he wouldn’t have left. Barcelona probably pushed him too play the game too. Sure of it. But you are justified to hate him for it.
Nah. Modric did the same thing with Real and spurs still told him to get fucked and squeezed every penny.
Arsenal had the power and chose not to use it.
This is true.
Daniel Levy sold Modric for 30 million pounds to Real. That seems at the low end for a player of that caliber. Even at that time. The base fee for Fabregas was 27.
30 seems about right to me for Modric at the time. Fabregas was a 50m pound player. Easily.
Ofcourse not mate. Forgive and forget is only New Testiment 
Yes Cesc was being petulant but Arsenal held all the cards and could have kept him. All the best if you don’t agree. But I think in your career if you had better opportunities and a family wanting you to move closer to them you’d want to act on that on a personal level. I think you have to put tribalism aside with some life choices
35m was different in 2011 compared to football pre covid now days
Real offered to pay more for him. They knew he wasn’t coming there. Probably would a better move for him. Wouldn’t have been shifted out on the wing and out of position generally.
For the player he was it wasn’t. 30m at the time was absolute bullshit and everyone knew it
Ah yes, that’s the purview of the other Jewish guy with long hair and a beard.
Yeah. Cesc was 24 when he left, Modric was 27. Plus Cesc obviously had a much bigger reputation.
Look at them now… Modric still going strong at 35, and you feel like Cesc retired years ago and he’s still only 33.
Well, I guess there’s a difference in playing in the English Premier league as a teenager compared to playing in the Bosnian Premier league at the same age. :pepe1:
I doubt Jesus existed at least in the legends we have of him. But I’m pretty sure the changes in ethics came through culture. From what I’ve read there was a Jewish tribe prior to him that were an offshoot of Judaism that had similar divergent principles to the new testiment from the regular faith. Although I don’t have the exact details too hand.
Only meant as a joke anyway mate. Didn’t mean to insult you or your religion or anything.
All the injuries he had to deal with whilst at Arsenal probably have taken a toll on his body and longevity too 
.