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Wenger: ‘Fabregas Wanted Arsenal Move But We Didn’t Need Him’

By on October 3, 2014

Arsene Wenger has claimed that Cesc Fabregas wanted to return to Arsenal this summer but we didn’t need him.

The majority of fans though Cesc would come back to his second ‘home’ when it emerged he wanted to leave Barcelona in the summer.

However, we were left flabbergasted as Arsene stood by and allowed his prodigal son to join Chelsea for a bargain £28million.

Some have suggested that Cesc ‘turned us down’ because he was offered more money by Chelsea, but the majority of fans know that’s total BS and Arsene has once again confirmed that Fabregas’ first choice was to re-join Arsenal.

Asked if Fàbregas wanted to return to Arsenal, Wenger told the Guardian:

“Certainly, yes. I don’t want to make a big story of that because you have to accept that. I personally believe that deal was done a long time ago, early 2014, and all the other speculation is just made up.”

The decision to reject Fabregas, despite having the first option to buy him back from Barcelona, was met with anger by fans – who demanded to know what Wenger’s reasoning was.

Well Arsene has revealed that he turned down the chance to work with his former captain again because we already had the likes of Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain in the squad and we didn’t need any more attack-minded players.

He told Arsenal.com:

“When he left we bought Ozil to buy an offensive player,” he said. “We have Cazorla, we have Wilshere, we have Ramsey, we have Oxlade-Chamberlain, who are all offensive players.

“We were not in the need to buy offensive players. It makes sense if you just look at the balance of the team. I think that’s a decision that is easy to understand.

“I think everybody has the freedom to go where they want. We have to respect their decisions. As long as we are not in contention we cannot stop people going where they want.”

While it’s understandable to a degree, nobody will convince me it was the correct decision to allow Cesc to join Chelsea. True, we didn’t ‘need’ him but you can’t have too many world class players in your team and Cesc is truly world class.

The lift it would have given the club by bringing him back would have been enormous and the price was a bargain. Sure, if everyone was fit Arsene would have a problem on his hands fitting all the players in. But can you remember the last time we had a fully fit squad?!

Ramsey, Arteta and Wilshere are all prone to injury, as shown by our current ‘injury crisis’ in midfield, so I don’t buy it that we didn’t buy him because of the players we already have. Squad’s win titles these days, not starting elevens.

“Wenger has a plan” some said in the summer. “We’ll definitely buy a defensive midfielder” other claimed. It turned out neither were true. If we rejected Fabregas to sign Sami Khedira or William Carvalho it would have shown some strategic thinking by Wenger. That he’d identified a need for a certain type of player and was prepared to reject re-signing Fabregas in order to fill a void we had in the team.

However, he failed to bring in a defensive midfielder this summer and we’re now short of numbers in the middle of the park. Arsene has also been experimenting with using Ozil out wide with two central midfielders ahead of Arteta/Flamini this season. In this formation, there is plenty of room for Fabregas as it would allow for rotation, injury or suspension.

So again, nobody will convince me it was the right call to turn Cesc down. I think we’re already regretting not signing him, but let’s hope we aren’t regretting it even more after this weekend. What are the odds of Cesc scoring on Sunday?…

One Comment

  1. ZG

    October 8, 2014 at 11:34 am

    We gifted Manure the league by giving them Persie. We have done the same again by giving Chelsea the chance to take Cesc. His partnership with Costa is moving on to legendary status.

    there is always space for a player like Cesc in any team. And given our injury record it is common sense to have double cover for all positions.

    Wenger made a huge blunder by not taking Cesc back as after-all the boy loved the club and was very vocal about it. You can’t blame a guy for wanting to play in his country in the top club he grew up idolizing. When you had a chance to take him back you don’t show your stubbornness but rather do what is good for your club. If he can take Flamini back……