Breaking the rules for Fabregas

He's won it too

I know, I know, I don't have transfer gossip on this website. But given that it now appears certain that Arsenal won't be bringing back Cesc Fabregas I'm going to add my tuppence on the subject. This is what Arsene Wenger has driven me to. The feel good factor about everything Arsenal has been smashed for me and many others. It took three weeks and one bit of transfer nonsense.

I am utterly amazed that Wenger has passed up the chance to bring Fabregas to Arsenal. It is a simple fact that, with Barcelona selling up, Cesc is our player if we want him. It beggars belief that we should pass up the opportunity to bring in one of the World's best goal scoring (and possibly the very best goal creating) midfield players. For anyone who says "we have a lot of players in his kind of role already" you obviously have an incredibly short memory. We get a lot of injuries, you might have noticed, so we can always use some genuine quality. How can signing Fabregas be anything other than a positive thing on the pitch for Arsenal? 

What happened in the two years before he left for Barcelona was sickening. He was retained as Club Captain for a long time after the armband should have been removed. Did he go "on strike" to force a move? Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. None of us really know. If you were looking for a reason why Wenger wouldn't want him back then that's the only one I can think of with any validity. Quite clearly Cesc wanted to go to Barcelona. We (Wenger) allowed that to happen at an outrageously low price. Now we have the opportunity to bring him back to Arsenal for a similarly stupidly cheap transfer fee and yet it is being passed up.

Last year Wenger was quoted as saying that he would take Fabregas back if given the chance. This is what he told the press in January 2013 when saying that Fabregas would return to Arsenal one day:

"Fabregas is an exception that I would try again, a world-class player you don't easily find."

So what the hell has changed? Yes, we've bought in Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey has blossomed beyond recognition. But both of them had long spells injured again this season, as did Santi Cazorla. We also have the perennially crocked Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky (winding down his career). We also have Arteta who is a long way the wrong side of 30 and Mathieu Flamini who Wenger seems to have quickly lost his faith in. In short, there is plenty of space for Fabregas at Arsenal. Given Fabregas' own injury issues he might not be available all the time himself, but for that passing ability I'd take the risk thanks very much.

The other thing to say here is that Arsene has always professed that he would only sign players who were better than what we have. If you take the idea that Ozil and Cazorla are the people he would most likely replace then Wenger is beaten by his own arguments. Fabregas is streets ahead of Santi. When it comes to Ozil, Cesc scores more, creates more, is able to tackle, can get through 90 minutes and, most importantly of all, is not afraid of the opposition and any physical contact they might make with him.

The final argument to be dispelled is the one regarding whether we could spend the money on more important weak areas in the squad. Of course we could. But if you're worried about spending money then sell either Ozil or Cazorla and get back the money you've spent on Fabregas. It really isn't that difficult.

If Arsenal allow Fabregas to end up at Chelsea, as is appearing likely, then we are effectively gift wrapping them the chance to win a Title that we have just given away. It is not really different to selling Van Persie to Man Utd - Fabregas is, to all intents and purposes, our player in this scenario. Why strengthen rivals? As I opined on Twitter a short while ago, I'd rather have Cesc inside our tent and p***ing out, than outside it and p***ing in. I am astonished that we are even having to go through this debacle.