Hes more athletic than Fabregas though and plenty younger, couple that with a prior relationship with Sarri and Fabregas never had a chance.
Fabregas could also be deployed in that role IMO but it could be at the detriment to the team as it’s set up now, you could not deploy Kante as high as Sarri is currently doing and leave Fabregas in the same position. However, if Kante was playing in the role as he did under Conte Fabregas could do well.
He is just past it like many others. Nothing bad about it.
With Cesc you do wonder if he could have a Pirlo like redemption at another club. I’d personally love to see Cesc pinging long balls through to PEA as a DLP.
To be fair, players all peak at different ages, Fabregas started playing 1st team football non-stop in a unforgiving league at 16 years old, while being a part of numerous national team squads (Over 100 caps) for tournaments, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him done in his early thirties.
He has his accolades and trophies(2 Euros, World Cup, interestingly no champions league) so I don’t think he’ll be too fussed, not sure if it’s really that much of a sorry story.
Would still take him here tbh
Nah I wouldn’t want him at his age now, I loved Cesc don’t get me wrong but I’d rather Xhaka as things stand ATM.
Is Xhaka actually quicker than Cesc even now? Because he’s definitely worse at everything else
Slightly quicker and definetly stronger.
Sneaks off to youtube for a secret wank
When he left, that was the end of Wenger’s dream pretty much. It was a shame for Cesc too because if he went to Barce after Xavi left it’d be much different to going there and being put into bit part roles that weren’t really his bag. Then he moves to a defensive Chelsea team. A football tragedy if ever there was one.
All of his own making. No tragedy, his decisions may have netted some trophies, but he certainly won’t be remembered as a legend at any of the clubs he’s played for.
Was about to say this, the only thing I’ll ever really remember Fabregas for is his standout performance in the champions league against Juventus, against Vieira the very man he replaced.
What I wouldn’t do to see Prime Cesc & Santi in our team atm.
I think he left us too early and that will always be my biggest criticism of him. He could have made the jump to Barcelona a season or two later he was 24 years old… He made the leap to Barcelona too soon thinking that because Xavi was 31 he’d essentially be his natural successor but Xavi had a few seasons left in him and Thiago was waiting in the wings.
He had time on his side but he was desperate to join in on the success at Barcelona and Pep ended up leaving a season or so later anyway. Plus he was always a bigger fan of Thiago.
I’ve forgotten all about him to be honest
He definitely left too early, he’d have been a club legend if he had stayed. I always felt like Wenger ‘lost’ a son when Cesc left. Our midfield wasn’t the same for years.
Wonderful player and, imo, one of the most gifted players I’ve personally seen at Arsenal in the 20+ years I remember.
Was our best player for a number of years and despite leaving us, and the bitterness of how it all happened, do I begrudge him wanting to join his boyhood club, to play under a manager who was a childhood idol, at a time when that club was enjoying a golden era? Looking back, I don’t.
When it turned out rather badly for him there, we didn’t want him back so he went and took the next best offer at Chelsea. We had Cazorla, Özil and Wilshere. We had moved on from him (although I still think we should have taken him back because he was still excellent at that point, shown by the crazy number of assists he got in Chelsea’s title win).
I would have loved for him to have won something with us, but he was too often surrounded by utter fucking dross. The van Persie and Nasri era we got close, but our luck with injuries was so poor that we never really got to realise the potential of having all 3 for an entire season.
His eye for a 50 yard through ball was utterly sublime. I can’t remember us ever having a midfielder with that level of vision and technical execution.
Fantastic player, I used to love him.
Slower than death though, I will never forget how Babel outrun him from his own half to score the last goal in our 4-2 loss at Anfield in 2008.
It’s weird why this remained as the most painful and vivid memory of that loss, compared to Lolcott’s brilliant run and Toure’s sheer stupidity.
I suppose I didn’t want to reconcile with the fact that we would lose that game and go out of the competition we were through up until the 86th minute. I expected us to score again in extra time and make it 3-3.
Ah, blessed are the days I was young and foolish enough to faith in us haha.
For me he’s still a club legend. He defines an era, was the key to arguably the best football we’ve ever played and kept us in the Champions League when we probably wouldn’t have done without him. He had the misfortune of joining in our austerity years and was playing with some real crap players because of it. If the Emirates move didn’t happen then he would of played with far better players and won things here. I remember him commenting on the different mindset at Barce because at Arsenal the focus was on top 4. Well he was a world class player, do we expect him to stay when that’s our only aim?
He did win the 2005 FA cup at us, I know you probably meant league title but I just thought I’d point that out.
Can’t forget this either. The most prestigious trophy in club football
