Cesc Fabregas has been at Arsenal for the last 7 or 8 seasons. He has turned from a promising star into a true world class performer. He has won the World Cup and European Championship, and played an important part in both tournament wins. He is also the talisman of the current Arsenal team. He is the captain, not a true leader of men, but on the pitch the younger players look to him to make things happen. Generally, when he plays well, the team plays well. However there has been plenty of speculation of him joining Barcelona, and the player himself has done nothing to stop the noise. Over the last few seasons now, his attitude has changed as well. He has been more vocal, at times verbally attacking other teams and players in the media. He has also had more than his fair share of injuries, with the club saying that at times the injury is in his head. I am going to provide some opinions as to what he adds, and what we would miss if he were to leave.
What type of player is he?
Fabregas is not a quick player. He has a good turn of pace, but his main skills lie in his passing and his composure. Like a number of top quality Spanish Internationals he has an amazing passing range. He always seems to find the perfect pass, and to roll out another footballing cliché, he dictates the pace of the game. Over the last couple of years he has added goals to his game, he has learnt to time his runs to get into the box at the right time. He has always contributed with assists for goals. I am not a big stat man, but it is clear when you are watching a game that the key pass that lead to a goal came from Fabregas. My personal admiration for Cesc focuses on his ability to keep the ball in tight situations and his ability to find positive passing and movement.
Where are the negatives?
Over the last couple of years he has become slightly outspoken with regard to other teams and players, and his attitude seems to provide a negative impact on the team. Let’s also remember that Fabregas wants to leave. He is always talking about returning home to Barcelona and the speculation has a negative impact on the club both the players and the club’s future plans. Arsenal cannot really plan what to do in the summer until they know what is going on with Cesc. If he stays the volume of cash available wont be as great, and this could influence the type of player we sign. You also have to question if you want your club captain to keep on talking or being linked with a move. His want to move away will influence the final price if he is sold. A club normally has to pay over the odds to buy a player that does not want to move, and conversely pay less for a player that is keen on a move. In terms of speculation and desire to leave, Fabregas in a way is similar to Tevez at Man City. The current team has been built around Tevez; however Tevez and his agent have made it very clear they want out. Their reasons are slightly different. Tevez is blaming the location (no natural desire to play for a certain boyhood club) but to move to a location that his family would be better suited. If Tevez were to leave, he would leave a big gap in the Man City team, and even though they have more money than sense, he would be very hard to replace just like Fabregas.
What would we miss?
Any club would miss a world class player. As mentioned he is the heart beat of our team and seems a popular player amongst the squad. From a stat point of view, we would probably miss around 10 – 12 goals a season, with the same amount of assists. If you count the assists as goals for the team, then that is around 20 – 25 goals a season contribution, which is massive. When you consider we score around 100 goals in all games, the stats point to Fabregas contributing to around ¼ of all goals scored. Personally, I don’t see this as a big issue. If a player like Nasri was to play more centrally and a true winger be utilised on the left, the goals and assists could be achieved. The area that I see as the biggest issue with Fabregas leaving is his ability to change the pace of the game.
Arsenal over the last few years have turned into a complete passing team. We like to put the ball down, and pass it around, using neat triangles to mesmerise oppositions and to put the ball into dangerous positions. Fabregas has been instrumental to this way of play, when he is not in the team, the pace and the intensity seems to drop providing the opposition the opportunity to put more pressure on the team leading to mistakes. This also leads to the inspirational attributes of Fabregas. When on form, he seems to get us goals. Going in to the final ten minutes of a game, we have relied on Fabregas to find some magic to find a winning goal, to turn one point into three. Is there anyone else in the squad that has this impact on the squad? In my opinion, no. This is where we come up short. This was highlighted at the end of the season, with Fabregas missing; the team’s results were shocking. Reviewing these games, apart from the defensive mistakes that were made against Villa, we lacked the pace and inspiration of Fabregas. It was also interesting that with no Nasri or Fabregas, the pace of play dropped.
What will happen?
Most Arsenal fans fear the worst, and assume Fabregas will leave this Summer or next Summer. It is interesting to learn, that Arsenal have offered Fabregas a wage increase (through the Spanish media), probably with a longer term to his contract. There are rumours that Arsenal want £50 million for the player, and that Barcelona, the probable destination of the player, stating they have a transfer kitty of £40 million or 45 million Euro. There is talk of a player swap with Barcelona. Whatever happens, Fabregas has been game changing for Arsenal in a number of ways. His transfer from Barcelona was game changing; we were able to attract an amazing player from a major club to join our youth system. He has also literally changed the outcome in a number of games, winning key games by himself, scoring amazing and critical goals as well as inspiring the team to great performance. Lastly, and I believe this will be his legacy, is that through Fabregas we have changed the way we play football. The quick passing, the intricate triangles have come through Fabregas as his highly technical way of playing football.
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