Former Arsenal favourite Cesc Fabregas is a Chelsea man now

Published: 22 August, 2014
by RICHARD OSLEY

HE plays like Cesc Fabregas always did, but look at the lad. 

His head is shaven where it was once mulleted, like a man beaten up inside, forlornly trying to cleanse himself. His eyes lack the soul of before. For deep down – really deep down and whatever he says – Fabregas must now know what he has come to represent and it isn’t very pretty, whichever team you support. The guy was pelted by Chelsea fans with celery during a cup final. He was always involved in snarling battles with John Terry and Frank Lampard while playing for Arsenal. Hooey, in 2010, he reportedly said: “If you ever see me in a Chelsea shirt, you have permission to kill me.” Yet here he is at Chelsea after being left unwanted by Barcelona, the Spanish club he made a soapy fuss about returning to in the first place, as if he was destined to stay there until a life-size sculpture was erected to him outside the Nou Camp. Not any time soon, Cesc.

It must have ached to then be told he was not wanted by Arsenal either. I think Wenger mentioned something about having Diaby to come back. However brilliant his playmaking, the Chelsea fans must feel a little sheepish about it all too, awkwardly being asked to adore a man they once despised far more than most Arsenal players. With all their money  Chelsea could have had virtually any midfielder of Fabregas’s quality but they chose him, and it just makes them look despairingly fickle. Certainly, with his Arsenal history, their fans will not be able, whatever happens next, to ever count him as a history book hero like Zola, Drogba and Terry. He is an icon for the new football world, stripped of loyalty, when anybody can play for anybody and the end days for one-club legends like Tony Adams or even Ledley King at Spurs.

The jealousy soon turns to pity.