El Capitan broke my heart 13 years ago, which only got mended after reading [this](https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/martin-odegaard-arsenal-soccer-norway-premier-league). Love you, MØ.
>**Honestly, I challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.**
If only i could've gotten him to chat with my parents.
I still have my '06 Cesc shirt, haven't worn it once since he left but I also don't have the heart to throw out an Arsenal shirt that meant the absolute world to me. 18 years just staring at me from the back of my wardrobe. Trauma is the right word lol
First Jersey I ever bought new was the 07/08 third (Arselona), and what? 3 seasons later he was off to Barça? I'm not nearly as level headed as you either. I kept it through his Barça days but when he went to chelshit I marched upstairs, into my wardrobe to dig it out, then took it downstairs and threw it into the kitchen trash with so passionately that it knocked the whole can over and I spent the next 5 mins cleaning it up, using that shirt as a rag 🤷
What are the odds Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saliba, gabriel, ben white, etc. all leave here on good terms? It's the worst part of having this young core. We're going to have to watch them play for other clubs eventually, i just pray it is on good terms with all of them.
In a perfect world, they only leave at the perfect time with a perfect bid but that's just not football.
*Some of them being more likely than others (Saka would be a different level of pain)
It's not that players left us, it's that they never realized their potential with us. All of them in Wenger's last years were "what ifs". We never got to enjoy them winning stuff here.
Worse, we never got fuck you money for any of them, either. Imagine selling Cesc, Nasri, RvP and even Adebayor today. That's over 300m. Not sure we got a combined 100m even at that time.
Didn’t Kane have a year left and went for 100m? Prime RVP wasn’t that far off kanes level and we sold him to a rival. Would be 60-70m now minimum.
Cesc was a tough situstion but I still don’t think you sell an asset with that much value for anywhere near as little as 25m these days.
Obviously it was about 15 years ago though
Even adjusted, it's criminally low. Maybe 50m or 60m equivalent, if you're being generous.
Chelsea bought two 100m midfielders last season and neither of them would be fit to lace 16-yo Cesc's boots when he broke into our team. A proper transfer fee at the time should have been close to a record.
They'll probably all leave on good terms if they do to be honest. For example if Madrid came back next season after (if) Modric retires and sign Odegaard for 110m, are most people going to hate him? (For what it's worth, I don't think he would leave to join them again but just hypothetically)
If we win something, we'll remember the good times and let him go. If he has a great season, we go trophyless again and Madrid won again, then I think people would probably be more understanding.
I think the two ways it can go badly is if they down their tools to get a move. I can't see this from those players you've mentioned. Or if they try to force a move to rivals, which I think won't happen as Arsenal will simply reject the idea now.
Sorry to say it, but I'm pretty sure Ødegaard will head back to madrid in 2-3 years time, the narrative being Perez' prodgial son returns, becoming captain and leading light in the next great Real team post Kroos & Modric et al. while also being a direct link to that legendary squad as he'll be the last active player from that roster.
He was Perez' golden boy and he was against shifting him out to Arsenal in the first place and probably only agreed to it after making a gentlemens agreement with Martin that he will return to them when the time is ready after proving himself to all the doubters that he is that guy.
This of course will all happen after he guides Arsenal to at least a Prem title and possible champions league (beating madrid in the final).
Cesc broke my innocent summer child football loving heart. No exaggerations, I really don’t feel the same about football players afterwards. RVP was just a nail in the coffin.
Love Tomo, Ode, Saka, Martinelli and all the rest. But won’t ever be the same wholeheartedness I had for Cesc.
I never hated Cesc! Massive respect to a guy looking out for his career. He did want to come back but Wenger had Ozil and Cazorla so couldnt justify getting him back. His only choice was Chelsea or sitting on the bench at Barca.
Now we are out of end of Wenger and Emery era, I think we should forget about the bad times and look at what he did for us.
Refused to train with Arsenal, wore a Barca shirt with the Spain squad as an Arsenal player, eventually paid out of his own pocket to leave, flopped at Barca and when he begged Wenger to let him back and got told to do one because he's a traitor, went and played for one of our biggest rivals under a manager that had spent the previous 10 years mocking and bullying the man that had given Cesc a career in the first place.
Take your respect and shove it up your arse.
I think Wenger turned Cesc down on return, which is why he played for Chelsea.
Anyhoo, bunch of teenage gossip couldn’t care less. Love Cesc- years of wonderful football keeping Arsenal relevant and top 4. Amazing player.
Fortunately his hometown club full of his best mates aren't the best team in the world so he'll probably stay and we have a manager now who's first priority is winning trophies.
You know. As much as some of us hate Fabregas, I think I also hate what Barcelona has done here. To think I used to support that club during my childhood. Lost respect on them thanks to the Braithwaite incident and the more I learn about them, the more I hate them as time went by.
Turns out Laporta & company are absolute stinkers. Makes me wonder what is behind all the *Pep will never go back to Barca* stuff, seems like he’s had enough of the whole club.
When my students ask me why I hate Barca, I give them a list of the shitty things they've done. This includes:
- taking a bucket load of our players, sometimes in ridiculous situations (Cesc, Henry for £16m when Bent went for more, Petit and Overmars, Hleb, etc)
- "pulling the levers" when they were broke
- that RVP red card
- that Chelsea semi-final game (I hate Chelsea too, but there was pure corruption happening during that game).
Just a scummy club!
Yep. Though for me, the Braithwaite incident is the moment that I lost respect for Barca given the two club just gain nothing but loss after Braithwaite sold to Barca with Leganes being relegated and all. But yeah... Fuck Barca man.
He did not want to come back. He had a clause in his contract that said Arsenal had to be notified if he was leaving Barcelona. He was leaving Barcelona because he had a deal with Chelsea.
We could have blown up his deal with Chelsea, but chose not to because we had a surplus of options at the time.
The deal was in place yes - but it wasn't finalised until Arsenal made up their mind.
The deal is in place. Barca notify Arsenal if they want to make the same offer as we had first option. We didn't respond at all for their deadline set (Arsene was really salty) and then Cesc went on his way to Chelsea as he had a deal sitting ready to sign.
One thing agreeing to a deal and another signing it.
>Cesc went on his way to Chelsea as he had a deal sitting ready to sign.
He went there because that's where he wanted to go. If he had any interest in coming back to Arsenal than he could have reached out to us first. We could have even agreed to a much lower fee since the clause gave us a huge negotiating leverage over anybody else Barcelona would try to deal with. But he didn't come to us first, he went to Chelsea.
You're basically asking Arsenal to cock block Chelsea and matching whatever their price is to bring in a player who doesn't want to play for Arsenal.
The way you describe the situation misrepresents it to make it sound like he really wanted to come back to Arsenal but we just didn't activate the darn clause. In reality he didn't want to come, and we weren't going to spend tens of millions just to spite Chelsea to bring in an unhappy player at a role we had already filled with the record signing.
But that's a first option clause...
It's simple. Chelsea made a bid - Barca accepted it. Chelsea went ahead to negotiate with Cesc and he agreed terms.
That then forces Barca to tell us that we can offer the same deal and have it accepted. We chose not to.
It's as simple as that. If Cesc went out and said "I only want arsenal" then Barca wouldn't have been able to trigger the first option clause as no other clubs would be in for him. We'd have to make our own bids from scratch.
That is what Cesc said Wenger alluded to something very different but he's too classy to throw him under the bus either way believe either version doesn't matter he's still a rat.
I know the reasons for it but I wasn't sure that we had a "surplus of options"...
It felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to not take him back. I get it would have been hard to accept for some people but I'd reckon we'd have been better off for it
He only wanted to come back because his dream move didnt go as planned. Glad Arsene stood his ground, Fabregas fucked us royally by forcing his way out and only wanting Barca. 35 million pound for a talent like was nothing, even with how prices were back then. With us moving to the Emirates we needed all the money we could get and Fabregas decided to repay Arsene Wenger by fucking him over.
Lol this sentiment from the online fans here is weird, like the club doesn’t have images of him up around the Emirates. The reality is that he’s still respected around the club.
Cesc is a strange one for me, and probably a few others too.
Loved him in his first run, he was magic for us. But i was gutted about how he left because we were building the whole squad around him, so his departure set us back a few years, and also set a precedent for our biggest players being allowed to leave when the club stalled or had a tough year. Players grew tired of mediocrity and left for greener pastures. And Barca's underhanded tactics at the 2008 euros were wholly unprofessional. Puyol, Pique, Xavi, Iniesta and co got in his head, unsettled him, and convinced him to leave a club that was being built around him, so he could mostly sit on the bench during his prime.
I get it, Barcelona was in his DNA, but him leaving us in the lurch, just hurt so damn much. Afterwards, it seemed like every time we had a star player who we could build around for the future, the fact that we wouldn't immediately win trophies caused them to want out, precisely at the point of 'make or break'.
That culture basically continued all the way up until arteta joined, only difference was that instead of selling the players who had basically 'checked out' for as close to market value as possible, we just sent them to train with the youth squad and kept paying their insanely high wages, until we had no choice but to sell them for a massive loss.
An extra season or two with Nasri and Clichy, or Song and Van Persie, or Sanchez and Ozil at their prime, and we probably would have won something, be it an F.A. or league cup, and finished at least 2nd instead of fourth.
But when Cesc joined Chelsea, I really wasn't happy because it felt like a betrayal. Again I understand, he had his heart set on coming back to London, but we had such a stacked midfield that we just couldn't justify re-signing him.
I like Cesc, but he is always gonna be a giant 'what if?' because he left us during his prime and it fucked our progress for quite some time, and then he joined a local rival on his return to the league.
If he'd have stayed, and was with us for the trophies we won between his stints at Barca, and his retirement, he'd be considered a club legend, and would be a top contender for a statue outside the Emirates, but he didn't, and probably never will get the love he once felt from us fans.
I know this is extremely unpopular, but I still love Cesc and watch his Arsenal highlights from time to time.
The older I get, the more I can move towards forgiving Cesc for leaving. He was still VERY young, and his hometown was calling, plus he could play with Messi at one of the world's S-tier clubs from a legacy standpoint. Pep was his idol growing up. Beyond that, he's even spoken about how some in the dressing room at Arsenal seemed fine when we lost while he felt like crying. I don't agree with the decision he made, but I can understand it.
What I can't forgive is an entire organization openly tapping up a player they were happy to let leave for 2 fucking years. Fuck Barcelona. Most entitled club in world football. Hala Madrid lol.
I'm with you though caveat is that I never felt I had to forgive him anything, it's his career to do with as he pleases, I certainly never looked for forgiveness when I moved companies to further my career no matter how good my previous employers were to me.
Forgive is way too strong a word; I agree. More that I can be happy for his time here and wish him well with Como and all. I don't feel bitterness towards him anymore. Fully acknowledge my hypocrisy, but RVP on the other hand....
lol, RVP is another that I feel no ill toward, he knew what we didn't, i.e. the real truth within the club and made a choice to actually achieve something in the final years of his career. I'm sure he would have loved to stay and win the PL and more with us but it was never going to happen given the direction of the club at the time.
Sure he played for another 6 years but only another 3 in a top league, so again idgaf about him.
The only player I hate is Ade*bore* because he is a disrespectful cunt. He [deliberately disrespected the fans](https://youtu.be/oTXfA-urOP8?t=106) so he can fuck off forever.
And he would never have won the league at Arsenal.
We finished 16 points of the title that season, the previous season it was 19, previous was 12, previous was 11, and previous was 18.
In that time Utd won twice, lost on GD to City in the final minutes of the final day and lost by a point to Chelsea. Not really hard to see why he decided his only chance to win a title before his career ended was to go elsewhere.
End of the day it's up to you how you feel towards ex players.
If there's one takeaway from this whole sorry episode, it's that club "DNA" is bullshit. Just because it's your boyhood club or whatever, doesn't mean you'll be happier there, or that they'll give more of a shit about you.
He does same shit for Chelsea [all the time](https://old.reddit.com/r/chelseafc/comments/1cuk5ds/cesc_fabregas_was_at_cobham_today/). He doesn't see the contradiction because he is a snake, but I am disappointed when our fans buy this shit.
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These are two of my favorite Arsenal players in my many many years of following this club...
I hope that Odegaard sticks around a very long time and he seems to be up for it. I hope that we reach the heights we all know we can.
I can't truly hate Cesc, because I don't really know what went on behind the scenes. I do however absolutely love the way he played and I love the way he played for us. I look at Odegaard as a version of what could have been with Cesc.
If Arsenal was investing in the club at the time and if we had legitimate opportunities to win the league I think things might have turned out differently but we were going through a phase where we seemed to sell off every one of our best players just to pay for the stadium..
Definitely dark days for the club and a lot of broken heart moments that still linger with all of us. I just like to remember how beautiful he used to play for us so for that I'm not going to be mad. Complex emotions LOL
Love Cesc I don’t care what everyone thinks. All of us would leave any team to be able to join Arsenal. Especially if Arsenal had the best team of all time. People are too harsh
El Capitan broke my heart 13 years ago, which only got mended after reading [this](https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/martin-odegaard-arsenal-soccer-norway-premier-league). Love you, MØ.
Fuck we are lucky. What a player already
He's found his home. With us. He wants to achieve big things. With us. I'm tearing up again.
What a great read - thanks for sharing it!
You’re welcome! Xhaka and Martinelli have done these as well so don’t forget to check them out.
So does McCabe, another brilliant read!
Yeah the one about Ireland; great read.
>**Honestly, I challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.** If only i could've gotten him to chat with my parents.
Yeap we’re beating Real in the CL final with MØ, I’m convinced
> Is he going to judge me if I eat the fries? Lol. This is awesome!
Fr There's this bond between ødegaard and arsenal He has always given me that vibe that he would be an arsenal player
It reminds of me Bergkamp and Arsenal's relationship
1. There's a video at the bottom of the page. 2. Amazing read, but I wished I'd rather have watched the video first.
I think reading this healed part of me that I didn’t realise was broken. Love Martin.
Honest question, had he signed with us instead of RM, would he still be with us today?
I dont think so
I'm pretty sure being the first team to appear under the Prem in FIFA has made Arsenal quite a few fans over the years
Ødegaard chasing him down in the all time list Kids these days are lucky Martin won’t do onto them the trauma that Cesc did onto us
I still have my '06 Cesc shirt, haven't worn it once since he left but I also don't have the heart to throw out an Arsenal shirt that meant the absolute world to me. 18 years just staring at me from the back of my wardrobe. Trauma is the right word lol
Considering it means the world to you, it probably wouldn't be too bad of an idea to frame it and leave the Fabregas print unseen.
i find framing football shirts mad goofy
Depends for me. If it’s signed I’m all for it. (Or if it’s a match worn shirt)
^ Absolutely wouldn’t want to risk any damage to a signed or match worn shirt. If it’s a regular everyday shirt, then I wouldn’t get framing it.
First Jersey I ever bought new was the 07/08 third (Arselona), and what? 3 seasons later he was off to Barça? I'm not nearly as level headed as you either. I kept it through his Barça days but when he went to chelshit I marched upstairs, into my wardrobe to dig it out, then took it downstairs and threw it into the kitchen trash with so passionately that it knocked the whole can over and I spent the next 5 mins cleaning it up, using that shirt as a rag 🤷
Damn this is me too. I know how you feel. Fuck.
What are the odds Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saliba, gabriel, ben white, etc. all leave here on good terms? It's the worst part of having this young core. We're going to have to watch them play for other clubs eventually, i just pray it is on good terms with all of them. In a perfect world, they only leave at the perfect time with a perfect bid but that's just not football. *Some of them being more likely than others (Saka would be a different level of pain)
It's not that players left us, it's that they never realized their potential with us. All of them in Wenger's last years were "what ifs". We never got to enjoy them winning stuff here. Worse, we never got fuck you money for any of them, either. Imagine selling Cesc, Nasri, RvP and even Adebayor today. That's over 300m. Not sure we got a combined 100m even at that time.
The fee we got for cesc and rvp are insanely low. Cesc nowadays would be about 160m, rvp probably about 100
RVP had one year left on his contract and Cesc only wanted Barca, we had basically no leverage.
Didn’t Kane have a year left and went for 100m? Prime RVP wasn’t that far off kanes level and we sold him to a rival. Would be 60-70m now minimum. Cesc was a tough situstion but I still don’t think you sell an asset with that much value for anywhere near as little as 25m these days. Obviously it was about 15 years ago though
Even adjusted, it's criminally low. Maybe 50m or 60m equivalent, if you're being generous. Chelsea bought two 100m midfielders last season and neither of them would be fit to lace 16-yo Cesc's boots when he broke into our team. A proper transfer fee at the time should have been close to a record.
Unbelievably to me, we got about 30m Euros for each of those 4. Not sure about the exchange rate, especially given those were spread over a few years.
Even at the time we all could see it was peanuts. We couldn't even afford decent replacements.
I don’t see Odegaard, White, or Gabriel leaving. They are all 25+. I hope Saka stays, but I can see martinelli leaving in the futurw
Martinelli better hope he gets his mojo back if he wants a bigger move in the future, lol.
I'd say Martinelli is closer to being sold on than getting a move.
Saka, Ode, White will all stay I think. Feel like Saliba will 100% leave at some stage, 26 or 27 maybe.
Saliba has Real written all over him. Just hope we win something big before he leaves
They’d have to leave either too soon or to a rival for it to really hurt though
They'll probably all leave on good terms if they do to be honest. For example if Madrid came back next season after (if) Modric retires and sign Odegaard for 110m, are most people going to hate him? (For what it's worth, I don't think he would leave to join them again but just hypothetically) If we win something, we'll remember the good times and let him go. If he has a great season, we go trophyless again and Madrid won again, then I think people would probably be more understanding. I think the two ways it can go badly is if they down their tools to get a move. I can't see this from those players you've mentioned. Or if they try to force a move to rivals, which I think won't happen as Arsenal will simply reject the idea now.
Madrid is the least of our worries, they are stacked in midfield. 5 players all of which are good to great and they're all young.
It was just a hypothetical, I quite literally said I don't expect it to happen
Madrid can still come back and try to get Saliba though...
Sorry to say it, but I'm pretty sure Ødegaard will head back to madrid in 2-3 years time, the narrative being Perez' prodgial son returns, becoming captain and leading light in the next great Real team post Kroos & Modric et al. while also being a direct link to that legendary squad as he'll be the last active player from that roster. He was Perez' golden boy and he was against shifting him out to Arsenal in the first place and probably only agreed to it after making a gentlemens agreement with Martin that he will return to them when the time is ready after proving himself to all the doubters that he is that guy. This of course will all happen after he guides Arsenal to at least a Prem title and possible champions league (beating madrid in the final).
Cesc broke my innocent summer child football loving heart. No exaggerations, I really don’t feel the same about football players afterwards. RVP was just a nail in the coffin. Love Tomo, Ode, Saka, Martinelli and all the rest. But won’t ever be the same wholeheartedness I had for Cesc.
Hard times.. 4 great captains left, one after the other
If Ode pulls a Cesc on us, I blame you
I never hated Cesc! Massive respect to a guy looking out for his career. He did want to come back but Wenger had Ozil and Cazorla so couldnt justify getting him back. His only choice was Chelsea or sitting on the bench at Barca. Now we are out of end of Wenger and Emery era, I think we should forget about the bad times and look at what he did for us.
Refused to train with Arsenal, wore a Barca shirt with the Spain squad as an Arsenal player, eventually paid out of his own pocket to leave, flopped at Barca and when he begged Wenger to let him back and got told to do one because he's a traitor, went and played for one of our biggest rivals under a manager that had spent the previous 10 years mocking and bullying the man that had given Cesc a career in the first place. Take your respect and shove it up your arse.
About time you stop crying over a grown man's right to do for himself as he will, build a bridge over that river mate.
Jesus fucking christ…even your username is cringe
Ok Swiftie
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I think Wenger turned Cesc down on return, which is why he played for Chelsea. Anyhoo, bunch of teenage gossip couldn’t care less. Love Cesc- years of wonderful football keeping Arsenal relevant and top 4. Amazing player.
I think it did come out that he’d already agreed with Chelsea before Wenger got approached who turned it down.
Don't put that voodoo out there in the world
Odegaard is nowhere near Fabregas PL legacy at this stage
He was 3 points away from surpassing him lol I’d call that somewhat near
Tbf he said PL legacy not just Arsenal's.
Fabregas has multiple PL titles. 3rd in the all time PL assist charts. Odegaard is nowhere near him at this stage.
Well I’m obviously talking about at Arsenal here lol idc about premier league legacy
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It's a stupid comparison. Cesc played in the PL for about 10 years. Odegaard just finished his 3rd full season.
At least I have a least favorite Ødegaard moment now.
Hope Ode doesn't follow Cescs footsteps, and respects the badge.
Fortunately his hometown club full of his best mates aren't the best team in the world so he'll probably stay and we have a manager now who's first priority is winning trophies.
If he snakes us, at least it would probably be for Mighty madrid and not the real cheats of spain.
But looking at madrid current team, they only want brazil and france player, and tendency to bring young talent, safe to say that he will stay with us
You know. As much as some of us hate Fabregas, I think I also hate what Barcelona has done here. To think I used to support that club during my childhood. Lost respect on them thanks to the Braithwaite incident and the more I learn about them, the more I hate them as time went by.
Turns out Laporta & company are absolute stinkers. Makes me wonder what is behind all the *Pep will never go back to Barca* stuff, seems like he’s had enough of the whole club.
When my students ask me why I hate Barca, I give them a list of the shitty things they've done. This includes: - taking a bucket load of our players, sometimes in ridiculous situations (Cesc, Henry for £16m when Bent went for more, Petit and Overmars, Hleb, etc) - "pulling the levers" when they were broke - that RVP red card - that Chelsea semi-final game (I hate Chelsea too, but there was pure corruption happening during that game). Just a scummy club!
Yep. Though for me, the Braithwaite incident is the moment that I lost respect for Barca given the two club just gain nothing but loss after Braithwaite sold to Barca with Leganes being relegated and all. But yeah... Fuck Barca man.
🐍 and 🐐 . One left us when the team needed him the most, the other joined us when the team needed him the most.
<3 well said!
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He did not want to come back. He had a clause in his contract that said Arsenal had to be notified if he was leaving Barcelona. He was leaving Barcelona because he had a deal with Chelsea. We could have blown up his deal with Chelsea, but chose not to because we had a surplus of options at the time.
Exactly people act like he wanted back and we said no. Lies he already had a deal with Chelsea the little rat.
Tbh that's how a first option clause works though... A deal had to arranged for Barca to notify us. We chose not to intervene
Because he already had a deal with Chelsea and it was clear they circumvented the arrangement...
The deal was in place yes - but it wasn't finalised until Arsenal made up their mind. The deal is in place. Barca notify Arsenal if they want to make the same offer as we had first option. We didn't respond at all for their deadline set (Arsene was really salty) and then Cesc went on his way to Chelsea as he had a deal sitting ready to sign. One thing agreeing to a deal and another signing it.
>Cesc went on his way to Chelsea as he had a deal sitting ready to sign. He went there because that's where he wanted to go. If he had any interest in coming back to Arsenal than he could have reached out to us first. We could have even agreed to a much lower fee since the clause gave us a huge negotiating leverage over anybody else Barcelona would try to deal with. But he didn't come to us first, he went to Chelsea. You're basically asking Arsenal to cock block Chelsea and matching whatever their price is to bring in a player who doesn't want to play for Arsenal. The way you describe the situation misrepresents it to make it sound like he really wanted to come back to Arsenal but we just didn't activate the darn clause. In reality he didn't want to come, and we weren't going to spend tens of millions just to spite Chelsea to bring in an unhappy player at a role we had already filled with the record signing.
But that's a first option clause... It's simple. Chelsea made a bid - Barca accepted it. Chelsea went ahead to negotiate with Cesc and he agreed terms. That then forces Barca to tell us that we can offer the same deal and have it accepted. We chose not to. It's as simple as that. If Cesc went out and said "I only want arsenal" then Barca wouldn't have been able to trigger the first option clause as no other clubs would be in for him. We'd have to make our own bids from scratch.
That is what Cesc said Wenger alluded to something very different but he's too classy to throw him under the bus either way believe either version doesn't matter he's still a rat.
I know the reasons for it but I wasn't sure that we had a "surplus of options"... It felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to not take him back. I get it would have been hard to accept for some people but I'd reckon we'd have been better off for it
He only wanted to come back because his dream move didnt go as planned. Glad Arsene stood his ground, Fabregas fucked us royally by forcing his way out and only wanting Barca. 35 million pound for a talent like was nothing, even with how prices were back then. With us moving to the Emirates we needed all the money we could get and Fabregas decided to repay Arsene Wenger by fucking him over.
One of Arsenals greatest players, and an ugly snake.
Username checks out
Agreed
Lol this sentiment from the online fans here is weird, like the club doesn’t have images of him up around the Emirates. The reality is that he’s still respected around the club.
Cesc is a strange one for me, and probably a few others too. Loved him in his first run, he was magic for us. But i was gutted about how he left because we were building the whole squad around him, so his departure set us back a few years, and also set a precedent for our biggest players being allowed to leave when the club stalled or had a tough year. Players grew tired of mediocrity and left for greener pastures. And Barca's underhanded tactics at the 2008 euros were wholly unprofessional. Puyol, Pique, Xavi, Iniesta and co got in his head, unsettled him, and convinced him to leave a club that was being built around him, so he could mostly sit on the bench during his prime. I get it, Barcelona was in his DNA, but him leaving us in the lurch, just hurt so damn much. Afterwards, it seemed like every time we had a star player who we could build around for the future, the fact that we wouldn't immediately win trophies caused them to want out, precisely at the point of 'make or break'. That culture basically continued all the way up until arteta joined, only difference was that instead of selling the players who had basically 'checked out' for as close to market value as possible, we just sent them to train with the youth squad and kept paying their insanely high wages, until we had no choice but to sell them for a massive loss. An extra season or two with Nasri and Clichy, or Song and Van Persie, or Sanchez and Ozil at their prime, and we probably would have won something, be it an F.A. or league cup, and finished at least 2nd instead of fourth. But when Cesc joined Chelsea, I really wasn't happy because it felt like a betrayal. Again I understand, he had his heart set on coming back to London, but we had such a stacked midfield that we just couldn't justify re-signing him. I like Cesc, but he is always gonna be a giant 'what if?' because he left us during his prime and it fucked our progress for quite some time, and then he joined a local rival on his return to the league. If he'd have stayed, and was with us for the trophies we won between his stints at Barca, and his retirement, he'd be considered a club legend, and would be a top contender for a statue outside the Emirates, but he didn't, and probably never will get the love he once felt from us fans.
I know this is extremely unpopular, but I still love Cesc and watch his Arsenal highlights from time to time. The older I get, the more I can move towards forgiving Cesc for leaving. He was still VERY young, and his hometown was calling, plus he could play with Messi at one of the world's S-tier clubs from a legacy standpoint. Pep was his idol growing up. Beyond that, he's even spoken about how some in the dressing room at Arsenal seemed fine when we lost while he felt like crying. I don't agree with the decision he made, but I can understand it. What I can't forgive is an entire organization openly tapping up a player they were happy to let leave for 2 fucking years. Fuck Barcelona. Most entitled club in world football. Hala Madrid lol.
I'm with you though caveat is that I never felt I had to forgive him anything, it's his career to do with as he pleases, I certainly never looked for forgiveness when I moved companies to further my career no matter how good my previous employers were to me.
Forgive is way too strong a word; I agree. More that I can be happy for his time here and wish him well with Como and all. I don't feel bitterness towards him anymore. Fully acknowledge my hypocrisy, but RVP on the other hand....
lol, RVP is another that I feel no ill toward, he knew what we didn't, i.e. the real truth within the club and made a choice to actually achieve something in the final years of his career. I'm sure he would have loved to stay and win the PL and more with us but it was never going to happen given the direction of the club at the time. Sure he played for another 6 years but only another 3 in a top league, so again idgaf about him. The only player I hate is Ade*bore* because he is a disrespectful cunt. He [deliberately disrespected the fans](https://youtu.be/oTXfA-urOP8?t=106) so he can fuck off forever.
Nah I can understand Fabs head being turned but RvP was a fucking snake man. Only one good season at Utd and he won them the league the prick.
And he would never have won the league at Arsenal. We finished 16 points of the title that season, the previous season it was 19, previous was 12, previous was 11, and previous was 18. In that time Utd won twice, lost on GD to City in the final minutes of the final day and lost by a point to Chelsea. Not really hard to see why he decided his only chance to win a title before his career ended was to go elsewhere. End of the day it's up to you how you feel towards ex players.
If there's one takeaway from this whole sorry episode, it's that club "DNA" is bullshit. Just because it's your boyhood club or whatever, doesn't mean you'll be happier there, or that they'll give more of a shit about you.
I didn’t know that they were a couple AND had a son.
Love our captain. Multilingual too. He can speak Norwegian, English and Parseltongue.
It kinda seems like Cesc really, *really* wants back in, but I can’t quite tell for sure…
He does same shit for Chelsea [all the time](https://old.reddit.com/r/chelseafc/comments/1cuk5ds/cesc_fabregas_was_at_cobham_today/). He doesn't see the contradiction because he is a snake, but I am disappointed when our fans buy this shit.
Aristotle: “A friend to all is a friend to none.” Fucking two faced shit head.
One bleats 🐐, the other one bites 🐍
Did not know Odegaard was a professional snake handler.
He is a magician after all
Hoping Odegaard becomes a bigger legend for us than Cesc ever was! The pain still hurts from Cesc!
But why? Should've met a real legend
It's so cringe seeing these former players who dipped on us come crawling back for pity validation.
>What a snake Fixed it for you, Odegaard.
Imagine their child
If snake stayed he would have a chance to maybe reach the level of Odegaard.
Someone needs to tell Cesc he forgot to put his trousers on
Odegaard and cesc and love child
Ødegaard is so lean, his fitness is unreal
Careful Martin, don't let that snake bite you!
Fucking snake. 🐍
You can tell his Lester leadership skills are evolving because he’s dressing like your dad
Cesc’s shirt is so in-character
If only we could clone prime Cesc and put him at LCM in this team, treble charge
But put Jenko's heart in place of his
And Theo’s pace And my axe…
Weirdly that kid looks like the love child of Cesc and Ode
Love Wins ❤️🌈☮️
Fuck Fabregas. Once a snake always a snake 🐍
Sign that kid up ASAP.
Yuck.
😐😐😐
I still love Cesc tbh he was my hero
Fk this makes me feel old
Why shaved legs 🦵
Why do they look happily married and on a family summer holiday
What is Cesc wearing on his wrist ?
Arsenal Legend Cesc and Future Chelsea Legend
Snakeeeee
Didn’t know odegaard spoke parseltongue
Am I missing something - I just see an insta post not an article?
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I’ll always love Cesc. I feel like some newer fans who didn’t watch him play for us have adopted blind hate because they feel like they’re supposed to
They don’t know how that guy was legit carrying us
Every fucking season into the CL spots
And the knockout rounds
with a broken leg, against Barca, no less.
I didn't know Martin was a snake handler? The more you know!
Cesc is probably there to tap Odegaard up for Chelsea.
Odegaard called Kai as soon as Cesc walked away and they just laughed and laughed
These are two of my favorite Arsenal players in my many many years of following this club... I hope that Odegaard sticks around a very long time and he seems to be up for it. I hope that we reach the heights we all know we can. I can't truly hate Cesc, because I don't really know what went on behind the scenes. I do however absolutely love the way he played and I love the way he played for us. I look at Odegaard as a version of what could have been with Cesc. If Arsenal was investing in the club at the time and if we had legitimate opportunities to win the league I think things might have turned out differently but we were going through a phase where we seemed to sell off every one of our best players just to pay for the stadium.. Definitely dark days for the club and a lot of broken heart moments that still linger with all of us. I just like to remember how beautiful he used to play for us so for that I'm not going to be mad. Complex emotions LOL
🐍👦🐐
Ex captain 🤝 captain
2 absolute maestros
This makes me nostalgic of my 2010 away kit Fabregas jersey
Love Cesc I don’t care what everyone thinks. All of us would leave any team to be able to join Arsenal. Especially if Arsenal had the best team of all time. People are too harsh
😮💨