Things For Cesc Fabregas To Think About

Look, I'll be honest with you, when you write a daily blog on Arsenal news it's a bit of a blow when you come to write the day's entry, hunt around for all the latest developments and you discover the blogging equivalent of a barren wasteland with the odd bit of tumbleweed with a Barcelona logo on it blowing past. I don't know why I'm so surprised to be honest, international breaks during the season are usually devoid of Arsenal news so it stands to reason that during the biggest international break of them all, the World Cup, pickings become slim at some stage or another.

Of course we have our Arsenal players who are hard at work in the World Cup to keep track of but yesterday that sadly amounted to Emmanuel Eboue getting a right old trouncing from Brazil, and nobody likes to see that. Unless you're a Brazil fan, or if you don't view Emmanuel Eboue as the apex of human evolution, but let's not be ridiculous. Today though could see Cesc Fabregas sit on the bench as Spain knock the living daylights out of Honduras, a situation he's apparently not completely content with. He's quoted as saying:

"I will not say 'I'm angry or I don't care about not playing',"

"I will go through my anger by doing my best on the training ground and proving that I'm ready to do my job.

"I don't have any regrets. I do not play as much as I want but it's normal that the coach chooses the others.

"There is a lot of quality here and everybody deserves to play.

"It's normal that I want to play more, right? Football is my life and I have been fighting all season to be here and help the team with my best."

Typically professional comments from Cesc but it's clear that he would like to be starting for Spain, and the ridiculous thing is that in any other national team in the world, he'd stroll into a starting place. However Spain are currently blessed with a ridiculously talented side in every area, not least in Cesc's position. He's one brilliant player among many there are others with a headstart on him because they've been established in the squad for longer.

You may be able to see where I'm going with this. Cesc cannot be blind to the fact that Spain's midfield is largely Barcelona's midfield. In particular the two players who are keeping him out of the Spain team, Xavi and Iniesta would probably be keeping him out of Barcelona's starting eleven a lot of weeks as well. I know there are rumblings from Barcelona about making sure he was in the side but Cesc must realise that they may say that now, once he's there it could be a very different matter. There's no reason for Barcelona to change their system at the moment, it clearly works brilliantly for them, the balance and the organisation of that side are as close to perfect as it gets. Whatever you may think of them as a club, their football team is really rather good, and since it isn't broke I don't see why they'd fix it to accommodate Cesc.

As Arseblog pointed out yesterday, and I believe I've touched on it recently as well, the massive transfer sagas Arsenal have been involved in within recent memory - Vieira to Real Madrid, which ultimately never happened and Henry to Barcelona which did at a later date both consisted of this long drawn out pursuit, with Madrid and Barcelona flooding the media with their nonsense and in the end, neither move materialised at the time the Spanish clubs wanted them to. Instead both players stayed with us an extra season and then moved on the next year (Vieira, albeit, ending up at Juventus rather than Madrid) with an almost ironic lack of fuss. I could definitely see that happening with Cesc. By which I don't mean I think Arsenal would or should do a deal now to sell him next year, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he remained an Arsenal player now, and moved next year or at whatever future date.

Nobody would deny that Cesc is going back to Barcelona at some point. I don't think anyone involved with Arsenal would want to deny him that chance either, it's clearly his lifelong dream and no true fan would grudge him that. However I don't think it would harm Barcelona, Arsenal or Cesc Fabregas at all if it didn't happen right now. Indeed Cesc might find it very frustrating to move now and spend however long having to struggle just to get onto the pitch. A lot focus from myself and Arsenal fans has been on what's right for Arsenal and how we don't have to sell and rightly so, but I think there's a good argument to be made as to why this move isn't right for Cesc right now either.

Next year, maybe the year after there will be an opportunity for Cesc to go to Barcelona and be first choice. Xavi is now thirty years old, he won't be getting any younger. Cesc could easily be the player to replace him at that time. In the meantime there's no reason he can't continue at Arsenal, indeed it might be the best thing for him to do for his career, and in the long run it might even be better for Barcelona for him to keep playing for us every week for another year or two rather than playing off the bench for them.

The new Barcelona president, Sandro Rossell has already spelled out Barcelona's financial position. They have enormous debts and still owe a large chunk of two considerable transfer fees and he doesn't seem all that keen to add another. Perhaps they should look at the long term for once as well. Maybe it might be better for them to back off for now. Arsenal won't be letting Cesc go cheaply so the situation they could be faced with is paying through the nose for Cesc who then gets frustrated with not being an automatic first team starter, or perhaps gets fitted in to the team out of position and then they won't see the best of him, what he can really bring to their football club. Perhaps this move isn't right for Barcelona right now either.

And of course, Arsenal. We have two players in midfield, Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey that I have great faith in. I think they could both become great, great players. The only problem is Aaron Ramsey is currently out for several more months with a serious injury that he could take a long time to rid himself of the effects of. To let Cesc go now and hope for Ramsey to come back and play out of his skin is simply too much to expect. However, in a years time if Aaron comes back and does well this coming season he might well be ready for a step up, and Arsenal might be that little bit better prepared to cope with the departure of Cesc Fabregas. Cesc will still be plenty young enough to go to Barcelona and have great years there and Barcelona might find themselves paying a few less million for his services.

So there you go, on this quiet morning, my humble opinion as to why Cesc and Barcelona might do better to stop and think if this really is the right move at the right time, or whether it might suit all parties to wait a little while longer.

In other news, such as it is, The Sun quotes Arsene Wenger as confirming the club have made a bid for Laurent Koscielny. They also say Wenger "insists Koscielny is the man to replace William Gallas though no quotes in their article support that. Arsene also questions the decision to take William Gallas to the World Cup in that article. Personally I'd go further and question why they took any of their players and indeed why they took Raymond Domenech. Again.

And that's more or less it. The Sun win "Worst Headline Of All Eternity" for "Bougy has a Madjid Moment", which is the lead in for a very tenuous linking of Algeria centre-half Madjid Bougherra with a move to Arsenal. Apparently Arsene Wenger said something nice about him so now we're buying him. Other than that, there's not much else going on so I'm going to sign off there and I'll be back tomorrow. Have a good day.