Barcelona target Cesc Fabregas and David Villa
Imagine an unstoppable battering ram that can both overwhelm and embarrass you in equal measure. It can make you dizzy, force you into errors and hassle the life out of you. It collects trophies like the FA collects scandals. Now add two brand new, potentially lethal components to that machine.
The news that Barcelona are chasing Cesc Fàbregas and David Villa should send chills down the spines of the football world. If they were that good before, how good will they be now?
In truth, neither move – should they happen – would come as much of a surprise.
Arsenal captain Fàbregas has long been linked with a return home to Barça, the club he left for London as a 16-year-old in 2003. Speculation intensified when the two sides met in last season’s Champions League, and a transfer has long seemed inevitable for the proud Catalan. The only question is when.
Villa’s move perhaps makes even more sense, and on the face of it looks less complicated.
With Valencia still mired deep in debt, many were surprised that the club’s prized asset didn’t leave last summer, but now there appears to be willingness on all sides for the Spain striker to join up with the Spanish champions. Now we’re just left with the fallout.
Adding Fàbregas and Villa to the Barcelona side doesn’t just spell the beginning of a potentially unstoppable footballing force, it will also probably spell the end of the Barça careers of Yaya Touré and Zlatan Ibrahimovic; the former has been linked to the Gunners while the latter could also be set for a move to the Premier League.
Thierry Henry is about to depart for a move to the MLS, while the futures of several of the club’s fringe players could also soon be about to come under fresh scrutiny, especially if they resurrect last summer’s move for Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano, the Argentina captain who is reportedly unhappy on Merseyside and would be available at the right price.
While his loss would be detrimental to the Reds, it pales into insignificance compared with what Arsenal would face if they lost their captain.
Fàbregas is the heartbeat of the Gunners’ side, he makes them tick, he is their leader and their inspiration.
The 23-year-old Catalan symbolises so much of what Arsène Wenger has tried to achieve in north London that his departure would damage so much about the manager’s philosophy – perhaps beyond repair.
Arsenal performed better than many expected them to last season – staying in the title race until the last month of the season – but it would be hard to envisage them doing that again without Fàbregas.
They obviously want to keep him, and while the final say should always remain with the club on matters such as these, everyone in football knows that that isn’t the case, and while everyone at Arsenal surely knew that one day Fàbregas would want to return home, they’d just hoped that it wasn’t any time soon.
It might still not be of course. Talks today with Wenger could resolve issues and see him stay, but the midfielder would be human if he wasn’t casting an envious glance towards the Nou Camp right now, a stadium he first visited as a nine-month old baby with his grandfather, but – due to injury and suspension last season – has never had the chance to play a competitive club game there.
That could soon change, and the sight of him lining up alongside Villa, Lionel Messi and the rest would be enough to frighten the lives out of anyone that Barça come up against.
Prepare yourselves.
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