Interview with Cesc looking back at his career, also at leaving Arsenal that summer:
https://arseblog.com/2020/03/episode-570-cesc-fabregas/
(Bit about leaving starting around 42:00)
TLDR: He was made captain, felt pressure to carry his team to trophies and gave everything. Was devastated after every loss, but got broken and literally gave up once he heard some of his teammates laughing and discussing where to go out later that night. Said only Nasri and RVP were on his level technically and mentally.
It's painful hearing him talk about giving up because the rest wasn't hungry, professional enough. Looking back, I can see players like Wilshire, Song, Ramsey, Bendtner, Adebayor being part of the problem. Arsene and his scouting staff only picked players on technical qualities and forget to have a core of players to instill the right mentality. Cant do much with only 3 guys who share the same ethos.
Fabregas with the cold hard truth
posted on 27/3/20
I'm not blaming the fans, just stating how I remember the feeling being around the time. I'm not some sort of moron who correlates the fans feeling something as how decisions are actually made at the club. What a strange rant to go off on.
posted on 27/3/20
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 1 minute ago
I'm not blaming the fans, just stating how I remember the feeling being around the time. I'm not some sort of moron who correlates the fans feeling something as how decisions are actually made at the club. What a strange rant to go off on.
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It was aimed at WB2 and I wanted him to read it as he has filtered me. Sorry it was not aimed at you.
posted on 27/3/20
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 1 minute ago
I'm not blaming the fans, just stating how I remember the feeling being around the time. I'm not some sort of moron who correlates the fans feeling something as how decisions are actually made at the club. What a strange rant to go off on.
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It was aimed at WB2 and I wanted him to read it as he has filtered me. Sorry it was not aimed at you.
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Sorry for the megabite back then
posted on 27/3/20
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 1 minute ago
I'm not blaming the fans, just stating how I remember the feeling being around the time. I'm not some sort of moron who correlates the fans feeling something as how decisions are actually made at the club. What a strange rant to go off on.
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It was aimed at WB2 and I wanted him to read it as he has filtered me. Sorry it was not aimed at you.
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Sorry for the megabite back then
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I hoped it had been to the thread.
posted on 27/3/20
posted on 27/3/20
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 4 hours, 38 minutes ago
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 22 minutes ago
Not what most fans were saying at the time though was it. Was all Ozil, Ozil, Ozil and Cesc was a traitor, feck him we don't want him back. Yet another case of Gooners and pot, kettle, black, when talking about Wenger and HIS bad decision making.
______________________
I think a lot of people wanted to see them together, but at the time Ozil was tearing it up and there were some not too bothered.
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Wenger has made more than £100m in his career at Arsenal. Just take that in. The stadium cost c£600m as a contrast.
The man was paid to make the decisions at Arsenal. His only successful period in terms of major trophies was actually when David Dein was holding his hand. Blaming the fans for that?
Wenger bought Ozil. Not the fans. Wenger rejected Cesc buyback even after spending £8m+ on putting in a clause to allow him to buy him back and then wasting it! Not the fans. All Wenger!
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Does it ever occur to you that, in the annals of history, arguments like yours will fade into nothingness and all that will be left will be Wenger's achievement, philosophy and grace that he bestowed upon the club. And, quite frankly, Wenger's magic hat stilled worked without Dein.
posted on 28/3/20
comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 9 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 4 hours, 38 minutes ago
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 22 minutes ago
Not what most fans were saying at the time though was it. Was all Ozil, Ozil, Ozil and Cesc was a traitor, feck him we don't want him back. Yet another case of Gooners and pot, kettle, black, when talking about Wenger and HIS bad decision making.
______________________
I think a lot of people wanted to see them together, but at the time Ozil was tearing it up and there were some not too bothered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wenger has made more than £100m in his career at Arsenal. Just take that in. The stadium cost c£600m as a contrast.
The man was paid to make the decisions at Arsenal. His only successful period in terms of major trophies was actually when David Dein was holding his hand. Blaming the fans for that?
Wenger bought Ozil. Not the fans. Wenger rejected Cesc buyback even after spending £8m+ on putting in a clause to allow him to buy him back and then wasting it! Not the fans. All Wenger!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Does it ever occur to you that, in the annals of history, arguments like yours will fade into nothingness and all that will be left will be Wenger's achievement, philosophy and grace that he bestowed upon the club. And, quite frankly, Wenger's magic hat stilled worked without Dein.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually I love Wenger. But I am also realistic in what he achieved and what he didn't. Wenger was not a philanthropist. He did a job for a lot of money. Did he deserve what he earned? For the first half of his career he absolutely did. The trophies, ethos and work ethic he implemented was the best. And for a while he was the best manager in the world. Wenger deserves a stand named after him and a statue.
But after 2012 Wenger was poor. And I am not afraid to say it. Many of his friends, Dein incl begged him to divide his work ie either become director of football or hire one. His management techniques were dated and that reflected in our results and slowly our squad started to decline. The troubles we have had since departure are because of that. We have bloated long contracts given to players are not capable of performing. Thats entirely Wenger's fault and we are still not out of his mess. For example we may have to let Auba go because Ozil still has a season left and ffp only allows one player on those sort of wages for a Europa level team. How do we cover his goals?
So you have to be honest. You can praise Wenger for his achievements. But you also have to be critical when he failed. That included stupid decisions in later years like not bringing Cesc back.
posted on 30/3/20
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 2 days, 10 hours ago
comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 9 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 4 hours, 38 minutes ago
comment by TBaggerin (U11806)
posted 22 minutes ago
Not what most fans were saying at the time though was it. Was all Ozil, Ozil, Ozil and Cesc was a traitor, feck him we don't want him back. Yet another case of Gooners and pot, kettle, black, when talking about Wenger and HIS bad decision making.
______________________
I think a lot of people wanted to see them together, but at the time Ozil was tearing it up and there were some not too bothered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wenger has made more than £100m in his career at Arsenal. Just take that in. The stadium cost c£600m as a contrast.
The man was paid to make the decisions at Arsenal. His only successful period in terms of major trophies was actually when David Dein was holding his hand. Blaming the fans for that?
Wenger bought Ozil. Not the fans. Wenger rejected Cesc buyback even after spending £8m+ on putting in a clause to allow him to buy him back and then wasting it! Not the fans. All Wenger!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Does it ever occur to you that, in the annals of history, arguments like yours will fade into nothingness and all that will be left will be Wenger's achievement, philosophy and grace that he bestowed upon the club. And, quite frankly, Wenger's magic hat stilled worked without Dein.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually I love Wenger. But I am also realistic in what he achieved and what he didn't. Wenger was not a philanthropist. He did a job for a lot of money. Did he deserve what he earned? For the first half of his career he absolutely did. The trophies, ethos and work ethic he implemented was the best. And for a while he was the best manager in the world. Wenger deserves a stand named after him and a statue.
But after 2012 Wenger was poor. And I am not afraid to say it. Many of his friends, Dein incl begged him to divide his work ie either become director of football or hire one. His management techniques were dated and that reflected in our results and slowly our squad started to decline. The troubles we have had since departure are because of that. We have bloated long contracts given to players are not capable of performing. Thats entirely Wenger's fault and we are still not out of his mess. For example we may have to let Auba go because Ozil still has a season left and ffp only allows one player on those sort of wages for a Europa level team. How do we cover his goals?
So you have to be honest. You can praise Wenger for his achievements. But you also have to be critical when he failed. That included stupid decisions in later years like not bringing Cesc back.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't mind his decision not to bring Cesc back. I think Wenger's worst failing in his later years was listening to his critics. You can see that in his transfer policy. Remember when he bought Gervinho instead of Hazard? Xhaka instead of Dahoud. Cazorla (wonderful as he was) instead of Isco? Each time he went for the safer, older option rather than the precocious talent. Remember when we stopped playing beautiful in lieu of what the pundits called "practical" football? Remember when he started following the statistics, and we bought Mustafi?
Wenger stopped being Wenger. It was not so much that he was outdated, but that he stopped believing. If we had 2010 Wenger in 2015, we would have won the title.
posted on 31/3/20
He was outdated. The AKB always said give Wenger money to spend and he’d win us the league. Wenger spent money and we got worse with every transfer and his head to head against pretty much any young or up and coming manager was average at best
posted on 31/3/20
comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 11 hours, 2 minutes ago
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't mind his decision not to bring Cesc back. I think Wenger's worst failing in his later years was listening to his critics. You can see that in his transfer policy. Remember when he bought Gervinho instead of Hazard? Xhaka instead of Dahoud. Cazorla (wonderful as he was) instead of Isco? Each time he went for the safer, older option rather than the precocious talent. Remember when we stopped playing beautiful in lieu of what the pundits called "practical" football? Remember when he started following the statistics, and we bought Mustafi?
Wenger stopped being Wenger. It was not so much that he was outdated, but that he stopped believing. If we had 2010 Wenger in 2015, we would have won the title.
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This is where you have to acknowledge David Dein's contribution into buying. The last batch of players that you can justifiably say were top class were the last batch before Dein was fired. Adebayor, Cesc, RVP, Sagna, Clichy, Song, Nasri, Eduardo, Gallas etc. That team should have won the title in 2009.
We had few players of that calibre after 2012. Probably only Cazorla, Alexis could compete but even they were only really successful after moving position. Santi moved from wing to CM and Alexis moved from wing to striker (winning the golden boot). I think the best way to describe it is to take the example of Ozil and Arshavin. Both were brilliantly skilled. Both ultra successful elsewhere with stats off the charts. But did Wenger ever investigate their character? The intangibles like family and cultural adjustment that was always done by David Dein in the past? Wenger loved skill and analytics. He was a pioneer in moneyball. But his teams were always accused of lacking leadership and heart after Dein's input was lost. Thats vital in title winning squads.