Whoa! Bad nights sleep last night. Never mind the fact I've been sleeping on a blow up mattress with a broken sleeping bag for the last couple of weeks. But last night, when I eventually got to sleep, my mind wandered and I start dreaming, well it was more of a nightmare, after United's dreadful performance, and may I add, Sunderland's excellent one, I was thinking of when United last played so poorly. Suddenly it came to me, that horrible night last May! The night of Iniesta, of Messi, of Xavi, of Guardiola, the night of Barcelona. They were awesome, and in my nightmare I saw them all celebrating with the trophy in hand. And suddenly I shot up, wide awake, and in a cold sweat, it was horrible.
It got me thinking about all walks about football, specifically I was thinking about Barcelona, about the midfield with Xavi and Iniesta and how good a pairing they are, last week I wrote about two good midfielders and their passing ability, there isn't many better than the Spanish duo though.
And then I got to thinking about England, who play Ukraine this weekend- a game I won't be watching due to the farce that the match is only being broadcast online for a fee- and how the last time England played particularly poorly they came up against the same duo. By the way these three paragraphs are all just leading up to the actual thing I'm writing about, which hasn't even been mentioned yet! The point is that Barcelona's youth academy is awesome, has already produced Iniesta, Xavi and Messi into their first team and will also be responsible of Bojan when he eventually breaks through. "So what?" I hear you cry! You already knew all this
But think again, who of you watched Arsenal's match on Sunday? There was a man on that pitch, only just a man, who ran the game like someone of many more years experience, at the heart of nearly everything his team did right against Blackburn was yet another Spanish central midfielder, one of only 21 years of age, one who, had history played out differently, could have been in central midfield back in May for Barcelona, of course Cesc Fabregas.
Fabregas was simply awesome against Blackburn. The passes were sublime, coming straight out of a text book and onto the foot of a more advanced player, usually leading to a goal or at least a shot saved by the excellent Paul Robinson. Fabregas is 21, just 6 and a half months older than myself, which is both scary and unfair. He has been handed the captain's armband very early on in his career and though it is far from the best part of his game it is unfair to judge him on it and he can only grow into the role.
The squad around Cesc is young and inexperienced and, certainly Premiership wise, he is one of the most experienced players in the squad. Having a player of Andrei Arshavin's quality will only help to mould the Spaniard into a better and better player. A match winner he most certainly already is, the curling volley against Blackburn proved that he has the goals in his arsenal (pun intended) to win any match. If Fabregas can add a little more consistency into his game, something that will no doubt come with age, then he could become one of the best players around, if he is not already.
It is this last sentence that must frighten Arsenal fans. Not because he is frighteningly good, or because they're scared of great footballers, after all they've already had one of the best players to have graced god's green earth play for them (Thierry Henry before you ask) but because he may become one of the world's best playing for the club you might say he was born to play for, Barcelona.
Being one of the best in the world you expect to win trophies, Arsenal are trophy less since 2005, not good enough for one of the "big four". Arsenal have also recently been the most likely of this quad to fall out of said quad, although maybe not this season. The fact remains though, without trophies both Cesc and the man who has changed the face of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, will eventually decide that the Emirates is not the place to ply their trade, for the latter it may mean retirement. If Wenger does not retire then there is a chance Fab could follow the Frenchmen but Cesc may leave sooner than that with rumours of a return to Catalan unwilling to go away.
I for one, surprisingly enough, hope he stays in England. It's nice to have the greatest players on earth playing in front of our eyes week in, week out. The Spanish league can't measure up for all round brilliance, even with this seasons additions of Kaka, Ronaldo and Xavi Alonso (yet another world class Spanish central midfielder- hardly fair). Don't get me wrong, the Premiership will still be great to watch without him, but you can't say the same for the brand of football his team play. Arsenal are brilliant to watch, in both their positives and in their failures. The loss of Cesc will not be the end of their lovely football, but the loss of Wenger will be, and once Cesc is gone there may only be a matter of time before the Professor is gone to!
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