Reuters Soccer Blog

Do Barca really need to splash out on Cesc?

In our latest post on Spanish soccer, Iain Rogers in Madrid looks at the latest round of speculation over the future of Cesc Fabregas and classy Mali striker Frederic Kanoute’s decision to play on at Sevilla for one more season.

Do Barca really need to splash out on Cesc?

The annual ‘will Cesc Fabregas leave Arsenal and return to Barcelona’ media machine has been cranking into gear in recent weeks and the man himself showed up in Madrid last week to present a new fragrance at a trendy art gallery near Atocha railway station.

Without having the decency to ask anything about the perfume, the assembled sports hacks packing the room subjected the slightly embarrassed-looking Spain international to a sustained grilling about his future.

Depending on which Spanish newspaper you worked for, Fabregas was either definitely on his way back club he left as a 16-year-old in 2003, had committed his future to Arsenal or was cosying up to Real Madrid.

From what he has said in the past, it would be amazing if Fabregas, a born and bred Catalan, moved anywhere else apart from Barca (if he ever does leave Arsenal) and he reiterated that it had always been his dream to play for their first team, where he is seen as a natural successor to his Spain team mate and fellow playmaker Xavi.

It’s interesting, and perhaps revealing, to see that Fabregas is not one of the players Arsenal have used in the promotional photos for their new kit on their website (www.arsenal.com).

Soccer Break Friday – R.I.P FA Cup?

When I was in a French campsite in the 1990s a Dutchman caught wind of the fact I was English and immediately asked “Do you know the scores in the FA Cup semi-finals?”

Ask most football fans about what day in the season they looked forward to the most in the past and the FA Cup would have often topped the list, but the grand old competition is on the wane.

This year, four Premier League fixtures will be played before the trophy-starved Manchester City and Stoke City take to the Wembley turf for a shot at glory, the irony being Manchester United could clinch the league title about 20 minutes before their bitter city rivals try to win their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Is this farcical and disrespectful to the FA Cup or a sign the times-are-a-changin’? Money rather than trophies seems to rule modern football, so it’s no surprise to see the lucrative Champions League taking over as the ‘must win’ competition.

Off the pitch the red half of Manchester had a pleasing day after announcing their revenue was up by 30 per cent. The Red Devils roll on.

Over to the ongoing FIFA corruption scandal, and president Sepp Blatter has written a letter to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport about his re-election bid on June 1. 

The talk in Africa is that one of the executive members embroiled in the affair, Issa Hayatou, should step down from his role as one of African football’s most influential figures. Agree?

Soccer Break Wednesday – Money buys success

Cash, dollars, bucks, dough, call it what you want, it paves the way for football clubs to be successful.

On Tuesday the bank-rolled Manchester City outfit reached the Champions League qualifiers for next season and could even secure an automatic berth if they pip Arsenal to third place in the Premier League. That would be a real kick in the guts to Arsene Wenger, who has barely spent anything in comparison to City since he took over the North Londoners in 1996.

A further blow to the Gunners would be the departure of captain Cesc Fabregas. Would he go to City of all places?

Football fans out there, is this fair? Should clubs’ success be based purely on the size of their owners’ wallets?

City’s rise has coincided with Tottenham Hotspur’s demise this season. Spurs’ foray into the quarter-finals of the Champions League proved a big step and ultimately hurt their chances of a place in the competition next season. They may not even secure a Europa League spot. Double disaster. Or is it?

Staying with wage bills and money in the game, salaries in Major League Soccer are up 12 percent, and, surprise surprise, David Beckham is the biggest earner.

Beckham however represents everything that is good about the game, an honest, hard-working individual. What we saw on Tuesday was the darker side of football with the FIFA corruption allegations.

Franckly, there’s only one replacement for Fabregas

Events, dear boy, events… If they can blow governments off course, they can blow the plans of football managers right out of the water. Just ask Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal manager thought he was building, slowly but surely, an Arsenal team that could go one better than the 2006 side that lost the Champions League final to Barcelona.

Unperturbed by the departure of Thierry Henry, Wenger chose to construct his new team around Cesc Fabregas, bolstered by carefully considered signings like Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin, and with a whole generation of youngsters making cases for places alongside them.

But as the wait for a first league title since 2004 has dragged on, so the criticism of Wenger’s slowly-but-surely policy has grown.

If Fabregas is granted his apparent wish to go back to Barcelona, expect even more stick for Wenger from fans and columnists talking about yet another backward step.

Once again, Wenger will be at a crossroads. Should he stay true and sign a carefully judged replacement, someone who could slot straight in and do a job while the youngsters continue to mature, someone like Mikel Arteta of Everton? Or should he consider a costlier, riskier replacement … a signing to set pulses racing and provide a touch of instant gratification?

If the latter, there is one obvious target out there in Franck Ribery, a player with all the skill of Fabregas, just as much presence on the ball and that touch of star quality all big teams need.

Barcelona land Villa, Cesc to follow?

Breaking news from Spain, where Barcelona have agreed a deal to sign David Villa from Valencia for 40 million euros.

The timing is interesting, coming as it does immediately after Barcelona successfully completed the defence of their league title, and before the distractions of a presidential election.

Joan Laporta, the outgoing president, was clearly determined the club should not rest on its palmares, and run the risk of a rival club using the power vacuum that is on its way to sign Villa from under their noses.

What does it mean for Zlatan Ibrahimovic? And for Thierry Henry? There is growing speculation that the latter will head off to the United States after the World Cup but I doubt of Ibrahimovic will go anywhere. The Swede actually had a pretty decent first season, even if it was light years away from justifying his huge price tag.

That aside, the other great question of Catalan state is whether the club can do a deal to bring Cesc Fabregas back home from Arsenal. The English newspapers agree this morning that the player has told Arsene Wenger he wants to go, with negotiations on the way over a fee.

The Barca team that won the league this season with the addition of another goalscoring machine in Villa and a midfielder with the presence of Fabregas sounds quite a proposition.

How will Real Madrid respond?

Fabregas gamble made for a great occasion

“It was a gamble worth taking, it was an amazing experience,  an amazing game and I will remember it all my life. This was the best team I have faced in my life.”

In a couple of short sentences, Cesc Fabregas summed up Wednesday night’s humdinger of a Champions League game pretty well perfectly, and made a persuasive case for a selection gamble that could make or break the Arsenal season.

Fabregas didn’t look fully fit in a first half that saw Barcelona’s technically impeccable team run rings around the Arsenal players. Messi, Xavi, Sergio, Pedro and the rest seemed to be playing a game of their own for the first 25 minutes or so, with Arsenal left scratching their heads at the intricate patterns being passed around them.

Perhaps it was the booking that would have ruled him out of the second leg anyway, but Fabregas seemed to redouble his efforts in the second half, in a heroic final effort that ended with him suffering a nasty injury, one that could end his season, in the very act of scoring the equalising penalty.

The gamble may end up costing Arsenal dearly. Barcelona remain strong favourites to reach the semi-finals, with two away goals, when the teams meet again at the Nou Camp on Tuesday and the loss of Fabregas makes a successful late dip for the title look even less likely.

But it was a gamble worth taking, wasn’t it? Whatever happens, Arsenal are guaranteed third place and a return to the Champions League next season, so why not give it everything in an attempt to prolong their participation this season?

“I don’t regret it,” Cesc said before hobbling away from the stadium on crutches. “You never know when games like this are going to come up again.”

Wenger makes a statement with Fabregas appointment

Arsene Wenger’s appointment of Cesc Fabregas as captain is more than just a strategic move, designed to ward off Barcelona attempts to recover the one that got away. The decision also says something significant about the way Wenger sees Arsenal Football Club. 

Wenger has changed the youth system, the players’ diets and the style of play and he has now appointed a captain made in the image of another gifted Catalan, Josep Guardiola i Sala.

The first time I was in a room listening to Wenger speak was after a Champions League game between Barcelona and Arsenal in 1999. Arsenal had just managed to claim a 1-1 draw, despite being comprehensively outplayed in the first half, and Wenger was extolling the virtues of Barca’s then captain.

“Guardiola was technically perfect,” he said, with something of a “purr” in his voice. “In the first half we tried to close him down to stop him using the ball but that didn’t work. In the second we just had to stop the ball getting to him in the first place.”*

Here’s what Wenger said when asked about the position of captain this week: “I don’t believe too much in leadership. I believe more in good passing than a guy who jumps around with his hands in the air and plays the leader.”

In England, where the captaincy often goes to the most ‘inspirational’ player, Wenger’s words probably sound strange but, thinking back nine years, I can’t help feeling Fabregas, a ball-playing midfielder who commands respect by the way he plays and leads by example, is the captain Wenger has wanted all along.

And if the move helps him recover his outstanding form of last season, and keeps Barcelona at bay for a year or two more, so much the better.

Arsenal need a tough nut to shield their prized possessions

Even manager Arsene Wenger has no clue which version of Arsenal will turn up to matches at the moment.

The one that swept aside Manchester United last week with a dazzling brand of football, thrashed Blackburn Rovers 4-0 away and dismantled Fenerbahce in Istanbul or the one that lost at home to Hull City, got bullied into defeat at Stoke City and was well-beaten 2-0 at home by Aston Villa last weekend.

Wenger moaned about a lack of consistency, while goalkeeper Manuel Almunia said that changes were going to be needed if Arsenal are to mount a serious challenge for the title.

While on their day they are the best team to watch in England, they are also extremely fragile. (more…)

Vlog on the Pitch: Cesc Fabregas special

When Aleksandr Hleb and Mathieu Flamini left Arsenal in the close season with no obvious replacements you might have been tempted to question Arsene Wenger’s transfer policy.

Well, Cesc Fabregas was not among the doubters, as he told Reuters this week. Cesc says he always had faith in the man who brought him in from Barcelona as an unknown teenager (as well he might).

Owen Wyatt “caught up with” the Spain midfielder at a trendy London nightspot and clearly picked up some fashion tips while he was there.

Check out the video above, and give us your thought on Wenger and his 2008-09 vintage Arsenal in the comments below, or in a vlog of your own, which we’ll be happy to host here (if it’s any good).

Note to Real Madrid — let’s speed things up on Ronaldo, please

It’s come to something when even the good people at Marca are getting fed up of the whole Cristiano Ronaldo saga.

The Spanish sports paper devoted an editorial and a couple of articles yesterday urging Real Madrid to get on with the job and sign the Portuguese forward asap. Today, they have vox pops from fans saying much the same sort of thing and it looks like their campaign to get things moving is going to continue.

Presumably Marca are seeing a dip in sales as a result of Nothing Much Happening day after day. After all, if there really is no movement you soon run out of ways to spin the story.

Real don’t have to worry about selling newspapers (at least not directly) and they may well feel they can afford to wait. The player himself is currently injured, meaning it matters little if he only makes it on transfer deadline day.

But are they right to sit tight and hope that Manchester United eventually give in and accept whatever offer (reportedly 90 million euros) is on the table?

Only time will tell, but Real may find they have painted themselves into a corner.

This is a good Real Madrid team but not yet a great one. They won the league title last season comfortably but they look some way away from being good enough to win the Champions League. They need some kind of reinforcement, whether that’s in the form of Ronaldo or someone else.