It’s rare that a player wins two titles with a club and yet when he announces his retirement to leave the sport to reflect on his career, he is firstly and mostly associated with a team where he only lifted one FA Cup, Arsenal.
Boy, would it have been a travesty if Cesc Fabregas didn’t have a winners medal to show from his time in North London?
It feels dirty to say the Spaniard lifted the same number of trophies as a Gunner than the likes of Sanogo and Eddie Nketiah.
Yet to judge his time with us on what he did /didn’t win would be a disservice.
Context is key ….
He was a teenager in 2005 when we beat Man United on penalties, his first full season in the first team squad.
The assumption was it would be the first of many pieces of silverware for him in the red and white.
No one could have envisaged we wouldn’t lift another prize for another 9 years, at which point he had moved back to Spain.
There were near misses.
He played in a Champions League Final at 18 with composure that didn’t match his age.
Given who our opponents were in Paris, now his media in the homeland had first-hand experience that the reputation he had in La Masia was warranted.
That European campaign, easily our best ever in UEFA’s premiere competition, seemed symbolic.
There was Viera’s return to Highbury only to lose the midfield battle to his much younger replacement.
Here we were in our last season at our beloved old stadium, heading into a new direction, led by a man who in many ways became the face of Arsenal as they moved to the Emirates.
Just maybe not the face he wanted to be.
Fabregas was sold on the vision that he would captain a young Arsenal team to former glories, passing on the principles taught to him by Pires, Ljungberg, Silva, Bergkamp, Henry, etc.
As the Invincibles were broken up, the average age of the side was reduced and so was the type of player now being recruited.
Never shy to give youth a chance if he spotted a talent, Mr Wenger couldn’t wait to rush the 17-year-old into the starting 11.
The Frenchman had found a gem and was so convinced he had found someone so special, that even with so little experience, this was who the post Invincibles would be built around.
Formations were changed to get the best out of Fabregas and the prototype of what Mr Wenger wanted in a player changed.
Suddenly talent short, maybe not physically imposing, were being scouted. Those shortcomings were accepted because the priority was having close control, being able to move the ball quickly in tight areas with no space.
So let me stress, Mr Wenger’s admiration in Fabregas from day one was genuine. He wouldn’t have put so much trust on young shoulders if that wasn’t the case.
It’s just …. not the entire truth.
Mr Wenger had to sign youngsters, untested at the highest level and therefore gambles, because he was restricted in the transfer market.
It has since been revealed the financial pressure we were under to pay back debt from building a new stadium and how crucial it was we made the top 4 for maximum revenue.
That’s what Fabregas became the true face of!
For a while he believed ambition existed, but soon noticed nothing was being done to support the playing department.
Despite his employer being a billionaire!
You can’t say at any point during his career with us Arsenal truly did everything in their powers to be competitive.
In our two-decade title drought, few players came as close as the midfielder to inspiring us to our 4th Prem.
It’s not Fabregas was superior to his teammates. His peers included a young Van Persie, Nasri, Wilshere, Adebayor, etc.
There were years when we got to March it generally seemed that Arsenal were going to be Champions.
The dressing room was technically good enough, they just needed some help.
A senior pro, a leader, experience just to demonstrate game management.
Slowly you saw Fabregas become aware of the situation, not able to hide his frustration.
I vividly recall a loss to Chelsea in a period where they always bullied us, no matter our possession stats or how many sideway passes we tried to play.
When confronting the referee Fabregas gestured for the official to look at the size of him, now compare that with his opponent.
He wasn’t saying it was men vs boys because he was as gifted as anyone on that pitch.
It was acknowledgment though of what we had become.
I truly believe he was proud to be our captain and had the respect of those around him.
Given his education, I think he shared Mr Wenger’s ethos. He too wanted to win playing the sport the right way.
He had to go to Stamford Bridge to win what he warranted, but I bet secretly he never loved the style of play he was now asked to take part in?
I believe it was heart vs head for our skipper at the time.
He had tried his best to make Arsenal successfu, but why should he give up his dream of playing for Barcelona if his employers were not willing to compete?
They had asked him to give them one more year, the armband used as a prop to appease him, being the face of a brand enhancing his image.
Yet, Arsenal were asking him to stay and not be ambitious, yet at the same time couldn’t even afford Mark Schwarzer! Trying to stay top of the table with Almunia in goal!
Even if he adored his place of work, no matter the respect for the badge, does it matter if that place of work refuses to move forward?
Are they not essentially pushing you out of the door? They might ask you to stay but their actions told Fabregas he was wasting his time.
Would you stay in a job with no progress?
There may have not been serious reasons to leave but the problem was no one could sell him on what was to there to stay for?
To celebrate 4th, qualify for a tournament the Kroenke Family had no desire to win while banking the participation money.
That’s why I don’t say ‘well done’ to our owners for doing a job they should have been doing when we had Fabregas.
They had serious power on the board at the time, yet sold Fabregas and Nasri in the same summer and kept most of the money for themselves.
Some Gooners will never forget Spain celebrating winning the World Cup by forcing a Barcelona shirt over his head, disrespectful to the team who gave him the platform to make it to that stage and he was still under contract to.
Some YouTubers campaigned for his image to be removed from around our ground once he joined Chelsea.
These same fan channels ask for forgiveness when they are racially abusive or jailed for kidnap, yet can’t forgive Fabregas for playing for our rivals, only making that decision because Arsenal turned down the chance to resign him.
Fabregas had a buy-back clause in his Barca deal and made it clear his first choice would be to return to English Football with us!
He would have lined up with a prime Ozil and Sanchez.
Yet Mr Wenger felt he could trust Ramsey and Wilshire to stay fit!
Since winding down his playing days, first in France, then the Italian’s lower division, Fabregas has tried to distance himself from our West End rivals.
On occasional work as pundit, he very much sells himself as an ex-Arsenal player not Chelsea.
I don’t think his connection with us is over.
He’s already announced he will now coach Como’s B team in Serie B.
He spent a few days at our training ground last season observing Mikel Arteta, both academy graduates from the same system, both Guardiola disciples.
Our boss has helped out Jack Wilshere by keeping him part of the family, by asking him to work with the under 23’s.
When the time is right, I can see Arteta doing the same for this countryman.
If Fabregas was unemployed tomorrow, Arsenal would find him a role.
Chelsea wouldn’t.
They are soulless and view Fabregas as just another name to come and go.
At Arsenal, he’s part of our family, where he grew up, from a child to a man.
He deserves to be forgiven for choices made after he left us.
That was our fault. We failed him by not being able to match his ambition.
You can’t ask a player to go on international duty, play with Pique, Puyol, Cassillas, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva, Alonso, Villa, etc and accept only 4th.
You can’t assist the winning goal at a World Cup Final then stagnate.
Cesc Fabregas won a World Cup, 2 European Championships, 2 Prems, 2 FA Cups, a League Cup, La Liga, Copel del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
He played 738 games and scored 125 goals and stole our hearts.
On behalf of Justarsenal, enjoy your retirement, Cesc Fabregas.
Once a Gooner always a Gooner
Dan
Happy retirement Cesc
Thanks for your service
Undoubtedly a great talent but a snake all the same .
🎯
I concur!!
The main reasons the legendary Frenchman was able to play the most beautiful football on a continent basis, its down to the fact, he rarely mixes his teams up.
There was a time, even the B team was such a beauty to watch, legend has it if there should be a game between A and B , the latter could win with minimum fuss.
Such was the amazing talents of the young guns at the time, happy retirement lad.
Consistent basics
I’m not sure whether he likes Arsenal more than other teams or not, because he couldn’t win any major trophy for Arsenal and he got better pay elsewhere
I heard he has become a coach. Hopefully he can return to Arsenal as a manager in the future and help us win a major trophy
Money and trophies make a player love one club over the other?
They could. If he loved Arsenal so much, he wouldn’t have pushed for a move to Barcelona
That push for. Barcelona was understandable 100% as he was from there and they were huge at the time. The disgrace move is the one to Chelsea when he left Barcelona. Thus, he was a great player for us, a captain, sure. But he won’t really stay as a too legend of the club independently of his successes elsewhere : Many ahead of him (from graham team, from 98/99, from invicibles and more recently the ones who got the cups : Cazorla, Ramsey, mertesacker…)
He wanted to return to Arsenal and Wenger refused. I like him and one of my Arsenal favorites but he was Judas all the same. The Barcelona jersey incident left a sour taste in my mouth to this day.
A true gunner? How? A snake. He went on strike to push for a move to Barca and when he found himself on the bench he tried to beat a retreat. Arsene refused because he forced a move away. After helping Barca and Chelsea to win trophies and Arsenal not fit for purpose, he noww wants to come back as a coach/manager?
No way. Barca and Chelsea awaits for him.
Why shouldn’t he push for a move to Barcelona ?
We didn’t have the ambiton to compete ?
Proved by the fact Nasri would go that summer , Van Persie and Song the next
Look who they were replaced with ?
Look how we regressed since ?
He was proven correct
I felt like wenger was stringing fabregas and RVP along for a long time – next year it will be better, next year, next year, but it never was.
I don’t blame wenger for that exactly (he had to try to keep them), but i don’t blame those two in particular for forcing moves in the end – they did stay for a long time, but if nothing changes, loyalty can only go so far.
I also don’t accept the stadium repayment argument for why things were allowed to decline quite so much. We lost the winning mentality from the squad and could have made smarter investments at times – it didn’t always have to be big money, it did have to be smart money, and we’ve not been good at that since dein left.
You don’t blame Wenger for that period and you don’t blame the stadium (argument of Wenger).then whose fault it is ??!! I think that Wenger is (maybe indirectly) responsible. He lost any capability in the transfer market without Dein. He never transformed again youngers in superstars. Made some bad gambles on decent players, but just way too short for going further than 4th : sanogo, Chamakh, bishoff, park chu young, Joel Campbell, kolasinac.. What a long list… he could have signed Higuain or Suarez, did not. Whenever a reliable affordable proven PL player was advised to him, he passed on them (Gary Cahill, Scott parker ..)…. he of course impacted the club fantastically and did tremendously well the fort 10 years. But the last part of his tenure was a semi success and we cannot blame many other things either …
I don’t blame wenger for stringing them along to try to keep them at the club.
I do blame wenger for allowing the mentalities within the squad to weaken to such an extent, and I blame him and those above/adjacent to him for the generally poor performance in the transfer market – not sure who’s exactly at fault there, maybe the lot of them.
I agree 100% with what you say… Very true
Dan & Davi think if all the judas hadn’t pushed for moves and they were all together in the end. What squad would that have been?
But the club have to take responsibility as well
Let’s say 6 of your work force walk out and say it’s due to a glass ceiling , zero room to grow ….that’s the employers fault
If we use Vanpersie as an example ……
He wants to win things , has listened for years about jam tomorrow
He watches you sell Fabregas and Nasri and replace them with Arteta and Benyayoun
Fabregas , Nasri were all proven correct , zero ambition under the Koronkes
Hence why 2 years ago 5th was called progress
If we hadn’t sold the judases, would we have even bought whoever the next guy was? Would we have signed Santi if we already had Nasri? (not sure if the timeline is right there tbh) I think the answer is no – we always replaced, never really improved.
At least Nasri and Van Perdue were available and gave their all right up to their transfers. Nasri was our best player in his last game for us, a home defeat against Liverpool.
As for Van Persie, the writing was on the wall the following season in our home game against Man Utd. 1 nil down and the Ox started to tear them apart, resulting in us drawing level. The next moment the Ox is substituted and Van Persie shouted at Wenger “what the f**k you doing”. Arsharvin comes on and a few minutes later Utd get the winner.
Howard, bang on the money. If a player wants to leave, put a written transfer request, you don’t go on strike !
I much agre wirth DANS far kinder and more realistic take on FABRAGAS, esp when compared to comments I firmly disaassociate myself from , such as “he’s asnake”, which is daft and plainly untrue.
I think I represent thr large majority of GOONERS WHO WILL REMEMBER Fabragas with admiration and fondness. I also firmly believe ,,as much sheer observing evidence shows , that he is STILL a Gooner.
DANs line is so very true. Certainly in Cesc’s case!
Dan,somehow I usually know you’ve written an article when somewhere you take a dig at Nketiah. You’ve made your opinion and feelings about Nketiah known several times; it is well documented on this forum. You don’t have to do it every chance you get- let the man be sometimes lol
I dont think it’s unkind to say ( whispering ) he’s not as good as Cesc Fabregas lol
I have a feeling I rate fabregas far more highly as a player than even most of the people who like him – he was probably my favourite arsenal player to watch, and one of the true geniuses we’ve had at the club. He could do things on the pitch I couldn’t see coming even from watching up high – usually this would be a brilliant pass that didn’t look on, but also that run and finish against spurs really stands out. This, combined with his winning mentality and consistency as a player made him absolutely world class imo. His mistake was moving too early, as barca already had a genius in his position who kept going for much longer than he expected. Had Xavi started to decline sooner, I have no doubt fabregas would have been considered one of the best of his generation, on a similar plane to Xavi himself.
Sad it ended too early with us and with too little success, but i don’t blame him for that.
OT: Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United has made contact with Vlohovic’s agent
A favourite of mine, from when he got into the first team at I think 16 with his mullet which after many comments he got rid of. Remember him dumping Vieira on his arse and making runs from midfield scoring lots of goals. Had an eye for the killer pass, loved playing for us and I can forgive him for wanting to go back to Barca. Him signing for Chelsea I can also forgive as he wanted to come back to us but Wenger turned him down. Had his best years with us, all the best in retirement Cesc x.
Not only was Cesc world class for us, it should be noted that he mostly played in poor Arsenal sides.
For me, a brilliant player! Loved watching him play. Shame we didn’t build a team around him.
A very good footballer, possibly even world-class, but his actions in forcing his Arsenal exit preclude him from being a “true Gooner”.
Great players. Fabregas and Santi Cazorla later on.
Great technicians at finding time & space in a crowded midfield and both were great in transition and a great eye for a pass. How I wish such players were in the team now.
A legend but not a true Gooner as your title suggests
Henry wenr to Barca
Is he wanted to come back and arsenal said no would that make him not a true goober ?
Dan you lack class honestly, comparing Henry’s situation with Fabrigas’s ?
No I was asking if situation was the same
Both wanted to go to Barca
Both wanted to come back
If arsenal said no to Henry would he not be a legend
Because that’s all Fabregas did wrong
He simply wasn’t allowed to come back
I believe that not taking Fabregas back, was one of Arsene’s biggest mistakes, but I understand why.
AW gave 100% loyalty to the club and expected it back.
Cesc, by his actions, forced the club to let him return to his boyhood club – something that he has openly said he regrets doing.
I just wonder how many of those out there who are accusing him of treachery and betrayed, are as white as the driven snow during their lifetime to date?
Cesc, as Dan says, has always been 4 Arsenal man, but when Arsene said no and chelsea came calling, he used his head (not his heart) and carried on playing the game he excelled at, earning, it’s reported, mega bucks.
Listen to him being a pundit at our games and he’s just like Ian Wright… it’s always “US”.
Thanks for the great memories Cesc, enjoy your retirement.
Ken, I’m far from whiter than white, but whenever I’ve left an employer I’ve always done it the right way by giving the appropriate notice.
What I don’t agree with is people calling players Judas for leaving us.
The difference between Cesc and RVP HD is one was honest and the other wasn’t.
Cesc always said he wanted to return to Barca, but gave 100% during his time and has never had a bad word to say about the club… even admitting he was wrong in the way he went about the move back to Barca.
RVP kept saying he would sign a new contract after the World Cup finished and AW planned accordingly. But he kept the club in limbo, before HE forced his way out in a much more underhand way than Cesc.
After the club looked after him during his early days with regards to his personal life, they then supported him through season after season plaqued with injuries.
The first time he was able to put in a meaningful contribution during any season, he decided to string the club along and then got his mega buck move to our biggest rival, Man united.
He then decided to tell the world how much better everything was at manure, but then got injured yet again and cost them a fortune in salaries.
After all this, he then had the audacity to ask AW, the man he shat on from a great height, if he could come back!!
Thank heavens Wenger got this one right ( just as he got the Fabregas return completely wrong) and refused point blank to have, in my opinion, the biggest JUDAS I have ever known at the club, who thought he could slink back and be accepted by those of us who sang out his name, only to see him put two fingers up to the club, the manager and, most of all, the fans.
“Little boy inside me” my a**e, he deserves the title JUDAS and I hope his medal chokes him.
RVP should not be mentioned in the same breath as Cesc Fabregas… in my personal opinion.
END OF RANT!!!
Fabregas never gave 100% while he was with us. If he did, then as the club captain he would have been at Craven Cottage for the last game of the season when we needed a result to qualify for the CL. Instead he was in Barcelona to watch The Spanish GP. He then refused to go on the club’s pre-season tour of the Far East and the friendly game in Lisbon against Benfica. In other words, HE WENT ON STRIKE.
As for RVP, yes the club stood by him concerning that story of what happened in Holland, just like the club did with Raphael Meade during his time at the club, and if the story is true, with Partey. The club, just like any other club, has an obligation to look after injured players. It’s not like RVP wanted to be injured and miss games.
Lack of ambition by the club led RVP to leave, but at least he played right up until he left, HE DIDN’T GO ON STRIKE !
Oh they are judas allright, all of them! Arsenal made them. Their forced moves made caused instability and we couldn’t completely build the squad to challenge. Had they all stayed we would have one of the best squads of that era.
I love all of them too much. It was my favorite Arsenal era since I became a supporter but I can’t excuse their betrayal.
Funny that we got the loyalty from the likes of Ozil and Xhaka compared to those we deem true gunners.
Alan Ball must have been a Judas then for leaving Everton, considering they made him. Same with Seaman at QPR, Overmars and Bergkamp at Ajax, Wright at Palace…
A lifelong fan and supporter of the club, I fell in love with Arsenal football mainly because of one player: Cesc Fabgregas. There will never be another Cesc.
Happy retirement CF.
Was he a true Gunner? I doubt it. He definitely didn’t believe in Mr Wegner’s project.
If he didn’t believe in the project, he certainly didn’t show it on the pitch given his determination and performances during a long period of service for the club.
Even if he did believe Wenger’s project was to fail, Cesc was proven right during his time with us, and after he had left Arsenal.
Have to agree with H H on this one. A lot of hypoticals but if Fabs had stayed, perhaps we wouldn’t have lost Van Persie and can only imagine that team could have been with the additions of Ozil and Sanchez. And probably noneed need to sign Xhaka. Ah, Cesc!!! You have a lot to answer for.
Congratulations to Cesc Fabregas on his retirement and his playing career, particularly in an Arsenal shirt.
It is a tragedy that the Arsenal “Invincibles” were broken up so soon after their success. Fabregas had to mature and contribute beyond his years, because of the lack of experienced professionals to mentor and assist in his development. Succession planning went out the window at Arsenal.
Also the change in Arsene Wengers “player profile” philosophy from strong physical players like Viera, Ljundberg, Gilberto Silva and Petit in midfield to small technical players meant that these players, such as Fabregas were bullied and rough housed by stronger physical midfields. It is a credit to Fabregas that he “coped” and avoided the injury record of other midfielders like Wilshere.