Cesc Fabregas has named Alexander Hleb as the most underappreciated player he ever played with.
The duo were teammates at Arsenal between 2005 and 2008 when Hleb left Arsenal for Barcelona.
The Belarusian’s move to Catalonia proved unsuccessful and he would later have a journeyman career among smaller clubs around Europe.
However, Fabregas was asked in a Q&A session on Twitter who he thought was underappreciated among the players he has played with and replied:
“Alexander Hleb”
Just Arsenal Opinion
The career of Hleb shows how a footballer’s future is just one bad move away from ruin.
He was a star player at Arsenal, but he couldn’t resist the lure of playing for Barca.
However, that move proved to be a wrong one with injuries and poor form ravaging his time with the Catalans.
He would certainly regret leaving Arsenal because the best times of his career were spent at the Emirates.
Hopefully, some of our players would learn from his mistakes that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Loyalty pays in football and players who have shown it return to heroes’ welcome whenever they are back at their old stomping ground.
But some will argue that it doesn’t matter because they are paid to play the game and have to make moves they think will benefit them.
Hleb, Flamini and adebayor were outrageously good in the 07/08 season but all went downhill from there due to bad luck and bad decisions.
Had good team back then just got picked off one by one, whichever way you look at it we starting to enjoy fruits of 2nd half of wengers reign!! Youth products we got coming through only there because of facilities and reputation Wenger built on back of sales such as these. Hleb was good but i think kanu was probably better answer!! Man scored vital goals all the time and we just never gave him the love he deserved. Hleb was a great player for Arsenal but i think kanu was less appreciated by fans.
for those who enjoy the more nuanced components of this game, he was very much appreciated, but it’s easy to see how his particular talents could be overlooked considering some of the players around him…unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to find greener pastures at Barca…I always wished we had tried to bring him back into the fold, once it became obvious that he wasn’t staying in Spain, but of course that never materialized
Very true Cessc. Hleb was indeed a great player for Arsenal, always enjoyed his game. He should have never left us. Also true Davi, they were all great players and so was Kanu.
Headless chicken Hleb? Not a choice shared by many and certainly not a majority of Gooners at all, I think.
Great dribbler BUT rarely any end product and a total aversion to ever shooting as I recall.
Flattered to deceive as so many players do but when it came to how effective was he , I say very little.
Rather like Gervinho in this respect and I’d even say Kanu too, though that will upset our many Nigerian fans to whom he remains an icon.
As a highly effective player though, IMO, he was far from top class, despite his close dribbling skills. He did not regularly contribute as much as a man of his undoubted close ball skills ought to have done.
Still a decent player but not as good as so many make out and they mistake being an icon with being a special talent!
It is what you CONSISTENTLY DO with the ball that actually matters and he benefiitted greatly from one rare hattrick at Chelsea, which IMO overinflated his long term reputation.