Tom Lappin: Mixed messages from Fabregas as he tests the water

Published on Friday 26 June 2009 22:22

LOST in translation. Perhaps that's the kindest interpretation of Cesc Fabregas's increasingly confusing and contradictory public statements. After all, it's a very different matter speaking to an eager Spanish newshound in the national team camp one day, and issuing a sober statement of loyalty, possibly after an irate phone-call from Arsene Wenger, the next.

"Impotence" was the word banded around in the English press as they picked over Fabregas's quotes, suggesting that Wenger's side was a feeble has-been needing an urgent dose of Viagra in the shape of a couple of goal-bagging strikers and a midfield enforcer, before they could ever resume scoring regularly.

"Impotencia", if that was the Spanish word Fabregas employed, might have been more generously interpreted as frustration that Arsenal could not match the resources, investment and ambition of Chelsea and Manchester United (not to mention City). The context, after all, was the question of whether Fabregas would contemplate a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona, clubs that, unlike Arsenal, are not so troubled by the accounts. Talking to Spanish inquisitors, Fabregas might have implied he was stuck at the English version of Valencia.

Whatever the linguistic hindrances, Fabregas might like to acquaint himself with the English word "disingenuous". For months he has been flirting with Barcelona, like a coquettish senorita peeking out from behind her fan hoping that Pep Guardiola is looking her way. Barcelona haven't exactly been returning the come-on, although the Catalan press has been pleading Fabregas's cause. This week's comments that he might even consider Real Madrid smacked a little of desperation, as in "come and get me, or I'll go off with that big ugly brute you can't stand and then you'll be sorry."

This is to stretch credibility. Fabregas rather complacently assumes his family would still love him if he went to the Bernabeu. That's possible, but nobody else in his Catalan hometown of Arenys De Mar would ever forgive him, and nor would anybody else in Catalunya. The vilification that met Luis Figo's transfer to Real Madrid would be tame in relation to the reaction should Fabregas don the hated white shirt. He was born humming the Barca anthem, went to the Nou Camp for the first time at nine months, has "azulgrana" blood. It would be as if Jamie Carragher signed for Manchester United.

His background fuelled the assumption that Fabregas's London sojourn was merely an apprenticeship, a toughening up in the Foreign Legion before returning to the Nou Camp in triumph, possibly as Xavi's successor.

If that remains Cesc's wish, he might have to wait. Barcelona has its home-grown golden boy already, in Andres Iniesta (by birth a man of La Mancha, but at Barcelona since he was 12). Nor are they strictly in the market for a Fabregas-type player. All their powers of seduction lately have been directed at the tougher and more pragmatic Javier Mascherano.

The secret of sustained success is staying one step ahead of prevailing trends. If football was the global stockmarket, brokers would have been yelling "sell diminutive Spanish midfielders" on Wednesday night, after Spain's humbling by the USA. Their share-price had been soaring for a year, bookended by the luminous triumphs of the national team in Euro 2008 and Barcelona's Champions League success. Now the USA, international football's equivalent of Blackburn Rovers, had burst the bubble, and the next few months should see a market drift away from romantic visionaries and back towards remorseless ball-winners.

Mascherano is still in Barcelona's sights, but their next signing will be Deportivo A Coruna's Filipe Luis Kasmirski, a tough and industrious Brazilian of Polish extraction and one of the best left-backs in La Liga.

Arsenal could do with such a robust recruitment policy. A steely midfielder and some defensive experience should be Wenger's priorities, although the Frenchman may once more be distracted by some promising 18-year-old unknown and forget to sign players the rest of the world might have heard of. Maybe somebody had a quiet word with Fabregas and told him his Barca return will happen one day, but not right away. Perhaps Wenger or Fabregas's mum told him to behave. In the event, though, he said he wanted to make himself absolutely crystal clear: "I am wholeheartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great club. It really upsets me when people express my thoughts otherwise."

He should have a stern word with himself then for all the occasions on which he has managed to express his thoughts "otherwise". Fabregas is a likeable enough individual, and perhaps it's a little harsh to apply the full weight of cynical interpretation on his words. However it's too easy to spin them as: "You'd better buy some decent players this summer boss, so that I can captain a competitive outfit next season and increase my market value in the process."

In the meantime, the Fabregas transfer speculation could yet be as drawn-out and tedious as the Cristiano Ronaldo saga.