If he has 18 months, his contract would end in January of 2013 Have you ever heard of a top level, long-term, premiership contract ending in January? I can't think of any I thought it was 24 months, but even if not, his contract would end in June not January
£ 35 M is a joke for a player who has managed only 34 games average over the past three seasons. By comparison, Xavi Hernandez (the man he is supposed to be replacing long term?) has averaged 52 over the same three year period. 35 M + Thiago would be highway robbery to the scale of the Eto'o for Zlatan swap.
I had a dream where Cesc was sold, and it really bummed me out, but then we signed Mata which was cool.
so how many other xavi replacements are there for barcelona to go and buy? btw, at the same age, xavi was playing a similar amount of minutes over 3 seasons as fabregas now but with much less return. even taken over the same timeframe of the last 3 seasons fabregas has 36 goals/64 assists, as opposed to 25 goals/77 assists for xavi and 19 goals/49 assists for iniesta, both with more playing time than fabregas (considerably more in xavi's case). i note you didn't take it back 4 seasons, which would make the return figures and time played look much better for fabregas. personally, i think fabregas is probably closer to an iniesta replacement than a xavi replacement, but there are elements of both. arsenal's big problem with getting fair market value (which would be easily £45m+) is that he isn't available on an open market, given that he will only go to one club.
You're right - 35m + Thiago is highway robbery, but it's Arsenal who are getting robbed. Fabregas is 24 (aka three years younger than Ibra was), and despite the injury issues has managed more assists than every player in Europe in the last five seasons. And he creates a chance every 28 minutes, which is more frequent than any other player in Europe. And you're saying that Barcelona paying considerably less for him than Ibrahimovic is a steal for Arsenal? How??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Regarding the 15% rumor - if it's true it substantially changes the terms of the deal for Arsenal: assuming the money's paid up front the 35m deal looks very similar to a 41m offer. I still think it's very low, but it's not criminally low like 35m is.
Cesc is also one of the most marketable players in Europe. There is a reason Real were more than happy to pay 80m for Ronaldo and consider it a bargain.
woah, lets slow down there... Thiago is fuccin good. Like potential world star good. If Thiago grew up in Arsenal's academy and developed like he has at Barca, their would be several threads about him potentially replacing a lot of our first teamers (if he isnt already in the first team). But the word is potential. Cesc is still 24, and is already a world star.
I can honestly say I am done w. Cesc. Respect him as a player but this transfer saga is getting tedious at best. £40 million Barca and do us a favor and keep him in Spain.
This is wrong. I'm honestly saying that your opinion is wrong. Fabregas is one of the best players in the world, and selling him for 40m is selling him on the cheap. Doesn't matter if you're tired of the transfer crap - he's so good that you deal with it. To paraphrase Bill Simmons, you do what you can to keep paper.
meh. he's neat, he's tidy but just....meh. tiky taky keep ball with denilson short sideways blah tendencies, dubious tackling ability and not exactly inspiring end product. potential, and may be a star one day, but it's nothing until he shows more.
This makes me wonder if you have seen him play at all. I sure hope Pep isn't stupid enough to include him in any Cesc deal.
sorry for not jacking off over neat and tidy potential that doesn't grab me much in the excitement department. of course you all realise his highest playing time last season was in the B team, where he produced zero assists and zero goals against lesser quality teams? in fact, over his 4 years and 59 appearances for the B team he has a mighty 3 goals for the next "world superstar", but then again, xavi was sh!t back then too (and for the next 5 or 6 years too). (and yes, i am partially playing devil's advocate, but only partially)
I honestly hope the deal doesn't go through. They shouldn't pay a fortune and trade away a top prospect for an injury-prone player who has won feck all in his entire career. I'd rather roll the dice on Thiago.
Does "feck all" include setting up the winner in the World Cup final? I hope Barcelona do as you say, and not buy Fabregas - it would make everyone here deliriously happy.
Yeah, you should probably watch him a bit more. Nothing like Denilson, if anything sometimes his passing is overambitious teetering on arrogant. I have never seen a player try so many no look and wrong footed passes, lol He is technically outstanding, dribbles well, and has a great shot.
So, Barca, champions of Europe and Spain, makes passes at a player for three straight years and he's NOT one of the best midfielders in the world? Oooohhhkay. Thiago is just four years his junior and has only 14 match appearances for Barca.
i have watched him. he has silky feet and is highly technical, no doubt. his strong point is close to the opposition player and moving from 1 foot to the other. maybe saying "denilson style" sideways passes is harsh, but it's still barca style tiky taky boredom with the occassional obvious barca influenced "pass it to alves" thing going on. for a killer playmaker he doesn't make many clearcut chances for anyone. like a matador with no sword to stick into the bull, it just goes on and on in an infinite loop somewhere around the centre of the pitch.