"Cesc Fabregas is the best Premier League signing of the summer"
Cheaper than Alexis Sanchez, Diego Costa, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, only £2m more expensive than Liverpool's signing of Adam Lalla...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2014/08/cesc-fabregas-is-best-premier-league.html
Cheaper than Alexis Sanchez, Diego Costa, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, only £2m more expensive than Liverpool's signing of Adam Lallana, The Telegraph has posted an article claiming that the signing of Cesc Fabregas at Chelsea IS the signing of the season.
It's remarkable to think that at £27m, Cesc Fabregas was cheaper than Luke Shaw but that's just the crazy financial world that football has become these days. Mark my words Chelsea fans, Cesc Fabregas was worth every single penny.
I wrote a post about Diego Costa being the striker we had been crying out for last season. As true as that is, just as important was Mourinho's need to find a creative spark in the middle of midfield after selling Juan Mata.
Time and time again last season against the so called lesser sides, Chelsea struggled to open the door, to break teams down that "did a Chelsea" and parked the bus. We looked out wide to Eden Hazard, Willian, Oscar or Andre Schurrle to try and do something to breach those tight, compact defences but to no avail. Chelsea's hands on the title slipped away.
When you think of what Diego Costa will bring to the team and to our play along with Didier Drogba, you can see that we have the option to mix things up, to play it long up to either of them to hold up and feed off of if the way in which we set out to play isn't working.
However, now in addition to doing that, we have the master of ceremonies, the conductor of Mourinho's orchestra and finally the man the team looks to for inspiration - Cesc Fabregas.
I often sat watching Fabregas at Barcelona and thought that something just didn't seen right, it just didn't seem to fit. No disrespect to Fabregas but it almost seemed as though they tried to adjust to make it work but it always seemed to look unbalanced as he was deployed in a whole host of positions.
This summer, he was deemed surplus to requirements by the new boss Luis Enrique and Jose Mourinho wasted no time in snapping him up and taking time out, missing his son's Cup Final, to talk personally to Fabregas to get the deal done.
Ever since that happened and Fabregas reported for his first pre season under the watchful eye of Mourinho, there seems to be a sense of calm around the place but at the same time a feeling that despite spending eight years of his early career in North London, Fabregas and Chelsea fit perfectly together.
Fabregas knows he will be the main man under the manager and in these early weeks he has thrived. Playing deep as part of the holding two midfielders, for the most part next to Nemanja Matic, Fabregas has really, really come into his own.
He passes the ball around with such ease and composure. Short passes, quick passes or direct passes, Fabregas can unlock the door in an instant and the likes of Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and the rest will all feed from that as the season rolls on.
It's almost as if Fabregas has been given licence to go out and play the kind of football he loves to do and to enjoy himself and with two pre season goals, he has been doing exactly that.
When asked of his time at Barcelona and of these past few weeks at Chelsea Fabregas said:
“It’s true that I have been playing in different positions at Barcelona and I learnt a lot from this as well – it made me a more complete footballer.
However, I know my place is in midfield – I want to play there and I think the coach [Jose Mourinho] knows that.
This is where I think I can give my best. It doesn’t matter if I’m just in front of the defence or playing behind the strikers, they are two positions I really enjoy.
When I was younger, I always said that assisting was my best asset and the one that I enjoyed the most.
I’m happy I’m very consistent in my numbers season after season but, now that I score more goals and have become more of a goalscorer, I really enjoy that, too.
I feel to have a good balance between knowing when to assist and when to go forward to score goals is important. I think I’m finding it now.”
Of course, it's only early days with the Premier League season literally around the corner but those early signs are more than encouraging for the Chelsea fans. To think, he will only get better and better as the season moves on and by the end of the season, I am sure football fans up and down the land will realise that Fabregas is still World Class.
Much has been made of the spat between both player and manager last season after comments made by Mourinho but everyone knows that the game is about opinions. Trust me, knowing he has 100% backing from his manager to just go out and play his natural game, we will see a huge bond develop between the two and that can only be a positive for Chelsea.
One thing I will say is that after watching Fabregas and the influence he has on the game from that deeper midfield position, I still cannot understand how Arsene Wenger would state that he has better options within his current squad and no room for him?? We will see who's made the better decision come the end of the season Arsene!
For now despite the fact that Diego Costa's playing style and goals with grab most of the headlines, I agree with the article in The Telegraph 100%. Cesc Fabregas is the signing of the season!