Cesc Fàbregas has announced his retirement from professional football. Fine. Good. This will at last lay to rest the eternal question of whether we at the Arsenal would want him back. On the other hand, it’s opened up two cans of worms. One: would we welcome him back in a coaching role of some kind? Two: is he an Arsenal legend. I know that there are a lot of fans who fell in love with this club in part because of Cesc, and why not? He was a scintillating, terrific player capable of electrifying moments. However…
His departure set this club back years. I’ve gone over it before, such as in this post. Here’s the short version:
- By flirting with Barcelona and mailing it in at Arsenal for over a year, his performance lost its edge.
- That flirtation and half-assery influenced other players into believing that the club had no ambition and that their best bets at silverware lay elsewhere.
- He convinced Nasri and then van Persie to leave, destroying what was becoming one of the Prem’s most-lethal attacking trios.
- He set a flamethrower to Wenger’s attempt to build a squad around him.
- We sold one of the best players we’ve seen in the Emirates era at a fraction of his value.
- He confirmed our reputation as a selling club with no ambition.
- His antics almost certainly dissuaded key transfer targets to pass on a move to the Emirates.
Whom might we have signed had Cesc been fully focused? A few names that moved at around the time of Cesc’s departure includes Mascherano, David Silva, Yaya Touré, César Azpilicueta, and Eden Hazard. We were heavily linked with these and numerous other players. Signing any two of these, maybe even just one, might have been the difference between scrambling for a fourth place finish and winning the Prem. From there, all bets are off. Win the Prem and players are lining up to join this club. Instead, Cesc’s toxic behavior made our transfer targets wary, and it’s only just now, more than a decade after his departure, that we’re recovering—led, ironically, but one of the players we signed to replace him.
With all of this in mind, could he become a good coach? It’s possible. That doesn’t mean he should have any role to play here unless it’s to warn players against following his example. For as good as he was, for as successful as he was, there will always linger a nagging feeling that he could have become something truly special had he stayed. He was emerging. He was becoming a leader. He was evolving. By going to Barca, yes, he won trophies, but his development seemed to stall. He was shoehorned into their lineup, and this arguably affected his trajectory. Had he stayed here, playing week in and week out in his preferred position and in a leadership role, he could have become our next Bergkamp. He could have become a legend.
Anyone who considers him a club legend has to ask themselves whether other player deserve such status. Aaron Ramsey? Mesut Özil? Alexis Sanchez? Each of them was scintillating. Each of them won more FA Cups than Fabregas did. I’d like to think that this club is bigger than that, that it takes more to become a legend here. Don’t get me wrong. As far as Cesc goes, I’m a well-wisher…in that I don’t wish him any specific harm. I hope he enjoys his retirement from the game. I hope he does his coaching badges and coaches some club in Spain or somewhere else far from London.
See ya, Cesc. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
amen! I don’t know what’s more embarrassing to watch, him simping for our fans as if he’s still a Gooner or our fans simping for him as if he’s still a Gooner. He showed us what he was made of when he gave up on this club. Much rather be a bolt-on part to Barca instead of fighting and leading and eventually winning here. If he didn’t want us, why would we want him, especially after everything Arsene did for him? Legend? Don’t make me laugh.
Are people seriously calling him a legend? If he achieved everything he achieved at one club, then yes. He didn’t achieve much of anything here. Ramsey he’s closer to being a legend than he is, and that’s still a long way off.
I can understand why some fans feel badly towards Cesc, but I feel he served the club well while he was there, I would be happy to welcome him back in a coaching capacity, his knowledge and experience would be invaluable to the younger players in the academy and I feel he still has a good feeling for the club, although many may disagree.
I’m not sure I’d welcome him back tbh. I love seeing Wilshere and Mertesacker playing important roles here, they seem to get the club better than Fabregas does. Maybe he has a good feeling for the club, that doesn’t really change how poorly he treated us though.
Thierry Henry left when it suited him and Patrick Viera was a consistent pain regarding signing contracts. You must have a short memory mate.
There’s nothing in what I’ve written that addresses any other player. I agree though that Vieira was constantly agitating for a move, but he did stick around long enough to achieve legendary status.
Henry’s situation is quite different. He left after conversations with Arsene revealed that Arsene was unsure of his own future with the club and that there was some concern that Henry’s presence might have been inhibiting the growth of younger players who were content to give him the ball and get out of the way. Henry left age 30. Fabregas left age 24, in his prime. Apples and oranges, I’d say, or at least apples and pears.
Can’t bring myself to hate Fàbregas. He’s one of the few players who left on bad terms that I can still suffer. He went back to his boyhood club, we’d all do the same if The Arse came calling.
Even when he signed for the chavs I still didn’t slag him off because I knew he really wanted to come back to The Arsenal but Wenger decided against it.
I think Gooners should remember the service he gave our club, he carried the team at times and gave 100% whenever he stepped on the pitch, he even played with a broken leg once. I don’t think he qualifies as a legend but he was a hell of a player who was one of the few shining lights during some difficult times.
Up The Arse
I don’t have Fabregas, even if my tone here or in the earlier piece I linked drips with scorn. I’m not sure how much I buy the “boyhood club” line, given that it only lasted 2.5 seasons before he started getting antsy for a return to London. Maybe he didn’t fancy the leadership role & pressure that came with it, which I’d have more sympathy for. He was a terrific player, no doubt about it. One can’t help but wonder “what if…”
Mate – you’re a prat.
Arsenal legend and one of the best players of his generation.
Would be welcomed back in future by all true Arsenal fans.
Ouch, easy with the name-calling. I’m very sensitive. Seriously, though, he might be one of the best players of his generation, but he just didn’t achieve enough here. Over the course of his career, he did get some important silverware with Barca and with Chelsea. The one FA Cup and Community Shield just aren’t enough to earn him the club legend status.
Let’s not get into the whole “true” Arsenal fans business – it implies that there’s only one allowable opinion on this and other issues. We can all have our opinions & understand that some opinions are better than others (I’m not insinuating that my opinion on Cesc is better than its opposite…). Let’s not bang away at keyboards. Instead, let’s imagine ourselves having this as a friendly debate over a couple of pints so that the tone can stay light, yeah?
So because he didn’t win alot with us, he isn’t a legend? By the same logic, Harry Kane isn’t a spurs legend? He has won nought
That’s a straw-man argument. Kane is different to Fabregas. He’s devoted his entire career to that club and won innumerable individual honours despite never winning anything with the club. In fact, one might make the argument that he’ll be more of a club legend for staying despite the lack of silverware. He’ll go down in history as one of the best ever and perhaps the very best to have played for that club.
It was all about going back to his boyhood club. He grew dreaming of reaching that goal and, unlike, most of us, got the opportunity to play for a club and on a ground that most of his peers could never ever do. We should not begrudge him that decision, although he might have done it with more grace and style and, maybe even he, regrets how he left and how he played at the end.
I think the era of loyalty to a club is long gone. I grew up believing that every player of my beloved teams would play forever and never leave until he was too old to play. We were shocked by trades and, of course, the concepts of free agency and switching sides for more money were treasonous.
Now neither the clubs nor the players care about who they play for, how long they stay, whether a loyal player deserves rewards, or whether it matters to the fans. It is all about the money, whether for the players or owners. Even the talk of winning championships or cups is much more about the added revenue it might bring and the salary bonuses.
The occasional claim by a player that his move is to a club that offers a greater challenge or to be playing for a cup, is offset by demands for higher weekly or annual salaries. Winning the CL, PL, FA or the World Series, NBA, Super Bowl, or Stanley Cup, is often more about the ability to demand more money and to raise ticket prices. Even the naive dream of amateur athletics at the Olympics or elsewhere is gone as we pay for appearances, pay for training, pay for winning, or just offer payment for advertising and endorsements.
Fabergas could have stayed, but much like the others who left including Henry and the infamous van Persie, how hard to Arsenal try to keep them let alone prevent vP from going to MU? It meant spending money to keep them and not just waving the old school tie or a dream of Arsenal glory in the future. Those players achieved their dreams of glory and titles, but would they have gone were it not for the money it earned them to do so?
I would accept the “boyhood club” line if his stay had lasted more than two years before he started pushing for a return to London. I understand that the idea of a player staying at one club is rather quaint and probably dead, but that doesn’t absolve a player of his decisions. In this case, Wenger had placed enormous trust in Fabregas, making him one of the youngest captains in club history and building the squad around him during his prime years. This isn’t Kouibaly or Ronaldo going off to Sauid Arabia for a golden parachute, after all.
Financially, we had the conundrum of having committed to financing that stadium ocmbined with Arsene’s self-sustaining philosophy, complicated by the later arrival of Abramovich and Mansour and their distortion of the market. In an alternate universe, Arsene’s vision comes to fruition without us losing those players. Cesc’s decision wasn’t financial, though. To me, it seems he quailed at the pressure of being the club’s talisman and chose the easier path of being an accessory to success instead.
People say we did a lot for Fabregas and have him his chance. And that’s true. But it came at the expense of Vieira. A FEIE legend who we kicked out the door so what loyalty did we show? What loyalty did we show to Rocky when we sold him to Leeds? So it’s a two way street and our beloved Arsenal are no better. What I can say is that for a few years Fabregas really loved this club. From 2005-2009 I’d say he loved our club more than he should, given his boyhood club was Barcelona. He was an amazing player. Genuinely loved watching him at the start of the 2007/08 season when people compared him to Ronaldo (in terms of impact not style of play). Him going to Chelsea was hard to see but we refused to sign him as we had Ozil. Can’t blame him I guess. As long as he didn’t end up at Spurs. Good luck Cesc. Would love to see you back as a coach.
Fair point when you point out that it’s a two-way street. I would quibble with your examples, though. Vieira was constantly agitating for a move away from the club, Rocastle had nagging knee problems that complicated contract talks. I’m not absolving the club, just suggesting mitigating factors. For Fabregas, Wenger and the club rolled out the red carpet, gave him the keys to the club, made him captain, and more.
I don’t think anyone doubts his quality as a player. I don’t fault him for going to Chelsea (much). We had Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey, and Cazorla, plus Arteta and Rosicky. There was no need for yet another crafty attacking midfielder (unless Arsene was serious in his apparent desire to field 10 of them), and it’s unlikely that we could have matched Fabregas’s wages (remember we also had Alexis). He had to know – given our rivalry with Chelsea and Mourinho’s personal disrespect of Wenger – that going to Chelsea would damage his reputation but went ahead with it. I don’t wish him any ill will nor do I bear any actual animosity toward him. I would simply prefer that we stop fawning over him as some kind of prodigal.
Not a legend but I do like the fella and respect his playing time at the club. Sad the way it ended, but he retains an affection for us above his other clubs, and which is good enough for me.
I can agree to most of that but see his apparent affection for this club as a bit self-serving. He probably senses that Barca and Chelsea fans regard him merely as a very good player who performed well but don’t necessarily show him much affection, so we’re #1 in his heart by default. That doesn’t carry a whole lot of currency in my mind.
Yes, of all that left, Cesc and RvP are the two that hurt the most. I don’t want those snakes anywhere near the club.
I may be alone in this, but I don’t fault van Persie as much as I do Fabregas. Van Persie saw Fabregas and Nasri leave for silverware. He stayed, and the best we could do to convince we were ambitious was to sign Podolski, Giroud, Arteta, Mertesacker, and Cazorla. None of them was an exciting, marquee signing. Van Persie knew that he only had a few seasons left before his decline. the fact that he went to Man U does sting, and he mismanaged his departure horribly, but he saw the writing on the wall. His departure was a direct result of Fabregas’s decision.