As an Arsenal fan, I absolutely love Cesc. But this whole situation was ridiculous and left a very bitter taste. What Arsenal or Barca did or didn’t do in this saga is debatable, but some of the things the Barca players did and said…just wow! Disrespectful and distasteful imo.
Forget Barca players. How about other players in the Spanish national squad joining in on the act. Reina for example forcing Cesc to wear the Barca shirt after they won the World Cup.
What an unclassy thing to do from the players of a so called classy club in barcelona. They have always been hypocrites with a houlier than thou attitude
@@yao052Reina came from the Barca academy, so makes sense that he wanted to put that shirt on him. There weren't any other aside from those with Barca allegiance that did this.
Fabregas won a ton at Barcelona but it always strikes me how while they were ofc the strongest club in the world when he joined, as well as reigning European champions, he never won the UCL in his 3 years at the club, then the season right after Fabregas left, they won it again! Unlucky, the same fate also befell Alexis Sanchez
Zlatan with Inter vibes. Left to win the champions league at Barcelona in a swap deal with Eto'o. Eto'o and Mourinho knock out Zlatans Barca and win the CL
Fabregas was superb, but it feels like he underachieved a lot. He was a top Premier League player as a teenager, had this huge transfer to Barcelona, ready to become their next great midfielder, then, yeah, he suddenly joined Chelsea, had one last top season there and left top teams pretty early. He was barely 30 when he started to decline. While guys like Modric are not the norm, Xavi and Iniesta were still playing at the highest level when Fabregas was leaving the PL for the second time. Fabregas is 36 and hasn't played top football (Ligue 1 included) for what? 2 years? He was great, but he could've been more.
As an Arsenal fan, this video brought back all the triggering memories from back in the day. The insane sense of entitlement of barcelona as a club and their fanbase because of their success back then - this is exactly why I myself (and many others) have rejoiced their recent humiliations and look forward to the day they eventually bankrupt themselves on their current trajectory!
One of the reasons why Arsenal fans hate Barcelona. We all knew he was gonna end up there at some point - but the lack of respect shown by the entire Spanish club ultimately caused Fabregas to go on strike and forced Arsenal to accept a lower bid. It was also at a time when they ware buying a lot of Arsenal's standout players, like Hleb and Song. This tactic has also become a standard way of doing business for Barcelona: "we don't have the money/don't want to spend much but we still will let everyone know that we want a certain player".
Can't blame them for it though. It's not their fault that they were successful and had plenty of pulling power. They didn't need to pay the full price of the asking clubs because they made the player want the move as well. Especially when the club in question is one with limited success at that time like Arsenal
I enjoy clowning Arsenal but I have to admit they have been through a lot in the past 20 years. If Henry + Ashley Cole had Stayed and they had gotten Makelele they might have made another CL run during 2006-2011.
This Fabregas saga was heart breaking. He was my favourite player growing up, the pedestal we put him on post invincibles was almost to the level of Thierry’s and he showed no reciprocal love or respect for Wenger or the Arsenal fans who adored him.
If Fabregas had gone for 60+ million or so, then I'd have been fine with it. He was an equal to Ronaldo at one point based on goals and assists, and you see how much Ronaldo was sold for. But the constant tapping up by his teammates talking about Barca DNA turned his head and he got his move, on the cheap.
Hey Rabona just wanted to say ever since you've changed the channel format to more documentary stuff rather than wknd recap i find myself coming back alot more often. I think alot of people will agree
Fabregas was an amazing player. Unfortunately for him, his legacy took a hit with this one. And when I think about it, this transfer should be the moment when we point to that started Barcelonas downfall. This is the one where Barcelona thought they could get away with anything and gave them false invincibility.
Really? Cesc's won more trophies at Barca than he did in his entire career anywhere else.. by some distance.. and even though Barca had financial troubles and haven't won the UCl since 2015.. they've continued to win League and Cup titles even up to last season, while Arsenal havent won a league title in 20 years. Only been in top four 3 times in the last decade. Thats much more of a decline, if you ask me
As a Barca fan I have to say that I skipped Sandro Rosell quote, damn I became angry just seeing one frame of that guy, he and his best friend Bartomeu destroyed Laporta and Guardiola legacy. That aside, if i we're Arsenal in that time just... the bench, and then sell him for an exaggerated price, there's no need to make a drama about it, just cut off the issue and everything is over. "El que dude de jugar ya no sirve", that's is the mentallity every great team should have.
I mean you can agree but Cesc was also kept in a average Arsenal team that won nothing despite wanting to leave he could have been a Champions league winner if Arsenal had let him leave earlier.
@@grealish2234 we are a better team than them now, how many times could u say that confidently in the last 20 years. Shows how much theyve fallen and it’s karma.
ngl as an arsenal fan i'm so delighted a large majority of our fanbase want him nowhere near our club again especially as a coach people clown us for not taking him back but honestly i'm happy about it wenger didn't want to see his annoying face again
As an Arsenal fan, this whole saga still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and I despise Barca to this day for how utterly disrespectful they were throughout. Cesc could have chosen to stop all the noise but instead, he chose to remain silent and then he had the audacity to want to come back when he realised the grass actually wasn't greener on the other side.
It actually was greener though. The only thing he didn't win with us was the UCL. If he stayed one more season, he would've had that. You can hardly even make the UCL knockouts or even qualify for the UCL.
Bro what? Cesc won a ton with with Barca. He played with the greatest team OAT. The grass 1000x more green lmao. While arsenal went on to not win a thing til this day.
@@1KxngTaf it’s almost like trophies don’t mean everything, he wanted to go back to England after only three seasons for one reason or another whether that’s because he missed London or he realised he wanted to the THE star again and winning trophies as just another one of the guys wasn’t enough for him. Plus why are you acting like Arsenal didn’t qualify for the Champions league every season from 1998-2016? The last few years are an anomaly because of years of mismanagement. Despite this Arsenal are still in the top 10 for wins in the competition and made it past the first group stage in every season after 1999-2000, the club lacked complete success in the competition because Wenger would rather play the right way rather than adopt a more pragmatic style that has more consistent success in Europe hence why the only time Arsenal made the final was the only time Wenger used a more pragmatic style out of necessity because of injuries which lead to 10 consecutive clean sheets in the competition which is still a record to this date. Keep on talking rubbish whilst you can because your petty mockery won’t be relevant when Arsenal are champions of Europe and Barca run out of levers and go into administration.
@@jafaral-badri8005 Why did he want to go back to Arsenal then if the grass was so green? Why does is he currently training to be a coach at Arsenal? Why despite everything that happened back then does he beg to have a relationship with Arsenal whilst his relationship with Barca is nonexistent? Please explain
@stealthiscool Champions of Europe....... You're funny. Even we stand a better chance of winning another one than you winning a first. Sure you qualified in the past but remind me how many finals you reached and who you lost to. And last time you in the UCL you were embarrassed by Bayern.(We were also embarrassed by them, I know.)
Fabregas and RVP will never ever be in line with the "once a gunner, always a gunner" code that most players who leave us follow. The pure disrespect from Barcelona and their execs during this saga makes me sad even to this day. Depressing stuff, but we as a club are moving in a direction now where we don't have to sell our best players to suit our financial needs because they are being openly "tapped up" by other teams. It should mean something to play for Arsenal and if it doesn't then you can leave, just don't be disrespectful while doing it. Great video as always
One thing I can say about RVP is that at least he owns it. To me he seems like he understood the magnitude of his decision to go to United and from then on there would be no coming back, and he's since stayed clear of the club. Fabregas was so shameless to me, and constantly tries to linger around the club like a bad smell despite the way he left us.
@@jheath102 Because he is not a club Legend at Chelsea and Arsenal. And Barcelona betrayed him. He thinks he is a bigger legend than Arteta so Arsenal should respect him more but Arteta actually worked hard for Arsenal despite having loyalty of Pep/City and Everton. He can live an easy life with City as assistant coach or low expectation job at Everton but he chose the hard job at Arsenal.
Listening to all this I totally forgot how drawn out it all was, mainly because I even more totally forgot that he was in Barcelona for a total of three seasons. So many seasons of courtship, and he is there for 3. Only 3. What a failure on the team's side.
I’m not gonna lie I really really have a hatred for Barca even more so now with being a billion pound in debt selling their stadium name rights, selling tv rights just for short term gain and also the way they treated cesc after all the fiasco of how much they wanted him and then within three years getting rid of him.
The contempt he's shown Arsene when he left will never be forgotten, the fact that he now talks as if it wasn't such a big deal and Arsenal were the one that hurt him by refusing him back, is insane. Not only that but he went and signed for Chelsea, that's a proper snake right there.
The sad thing is Barcelona in the end didn't manage to get the best out of him and they fell out of love with him very quickly and Cesc was shipped out of within a few years.
What barca players and their executives did is totally unacceptable. Anyone with class would avoid doing this.there is another club named bayern who are equally masters of the same thing
Definitely one of the most messy transfer saga ever. Fabregas was a baller at Arsenal and captain despite Arsenal went through mediocrity and disillusionment. I enjoyed watching Fabregas at Arsenal and he's one of those players I would sign up when playing Fifa when I was a teenager when doing a Barcelona career mode. In 2011 Fabregas got his dream move to Barcelona however joined at the wrong time and failed to be a starter. 3 years later he tried to return to Arsenal but Wenger refused since Arsenal still had Özil and Cazorla then and had to join Chelsea and won two Premier League titles. Moral of the story, it's not always greener on the other side for players when wanting to join a dream club. Ask Fabregas, Sancho and Pepe.
Sancho ?? His move to dortmund was a great move. But since when man utd are his dream club ?? He came back just to rub salt to man city but didn’t work out. The better example you should’ve put is EDEN HAZARD to madrid / COUTINHO to barca.
The Barcelona executives and players felt entitled and heaped insults on The Arsenal throughout that saga. That all I remember, and it was distasteful.
This was the saga that made me hate Barcelona as an institution. I am not even a Real or Arsenal fan. It lacked class, entitlement and arrogance. Especially the players and how publicly they disrespected Arsenal. They made him take a pay cut and pay a portion of his transfer fee. Karma is great. Look at them now, swimming in financial problems, lost Messi, twerking for change like hosting weddings on their pitch, arrests and indictments, UCL group eliminations, getting knocked out of europe all together in europa play offs and are the butt of jokes when it comes to transfers.
He was one of the first players I got to see wearing a Barca shirt when I was a kid and it’s kinda sad to learn how many of the players pressured this signing and put Fabregas in an awkward position.
I was too young of a barca fans to notice all this back then. So we beat them in 2006, did all this infuriating saga to them, then ended up selling him to their rival. If that wasn't the biggest asshole move, I don't what is🤣
This is the reason why I think whatever Bacrelona is getting now is karma for what they did to Arsenal and Cesc. To go through all these, and throw Cesc away like "garbage" just 3 season is pure dumbness
As a Madrid fan I can’t stand out clubs entitlement sometimes. That said our club is not close as bad as Barca and specifically Laporta who does this EVERY month.
As a Barca Supporter, this pains me. I am relatively New Barca Fan, something like 2014-15. I wasn't aware of this saga until now. All the bad qualities of the club I usually assigned to the old management of Rosell and Co. But this is Absolutely trashy behavior and shows a complete lack of decency, that too from a group of players who are club legends and management (laporta) that I approve of. I am sorry to all the arsenal fans. I wonder will all the top clubs even remain for us to be fans of, if we see their behavior.
I am Catalan and my name is Fransesc. I waited for many years for him to sign for Barcelona in hopes to get a call T-shirt with my name (Cesc) on the back. And then he went for Fàbregas… damn Cesc… 😊😊
As an 18 yo Spaniard at the time, I remember how tiresome this whole saga was... and you didn't even mention how before signing for Barcelona, he was involved in another transfer saga (although not as dramatic) with Real Madrid.
And now Fabregas isn't respected at Arsenal, is a nobody even in that one generation of Barcelona's and isn't that big of a deal for Chelsea either. It was a childish move done the wrong way and leading to nothing good. Could've been the Tony Adams of midfielders in Arsenal. Now he has no true legacy fitting of his talent anywhere!
I wholeheartedly despise Xavi to the core. FCB had no reason nor need of someone like Fabregas, and Xavi himself wasn't retiring anytime soon but he said all the ridiculous accusations against Arsenal. What Fabregas did during that time left no room to be an Arsenal legend, not that that's something really matters to him. He just wants trophies to vindicate himself. He did won some titles at FCB, although he never established himself among the very core to that team, and Xavi never wanted to relinquish his place to Cesc. Now that Fabregas retires and I really wonder which team football fans can associate him with, and whether he would be regarded as one of the very best midfielders in that generation. However, in retrospect, Arsenal was not going well both on the pitch and in the transfer market, which gave Fabregas and other standout players realistic hope that they would win major trophies. Arsenal was in their stadium debt and Wenger was always replacing star players with cheap inferior ones like Song, Eboue, Danilson, and Chamakh. If I were Fabregas or RVP I'd also be impatient as players careers are short.
Yeah covert your frustrations of winning nothing onto Xavi.. Shift your years of trophyless at Arsenal onto Xavi becuz he won trophies 😂😂 Bruh better focus ur hate somewhere it should be, at Wenger and his Banter football ...It's not like Xavi even knows your name 😂😂
@@eL--RaL I don't care how many titles FCB won because they've shamed themselves. Their winning history is forever tarnished with referee bribing scandals and financial failures. You're addicted to chase success but your future is owned by financial institutions. And guess what Xavi doesn't care about you too no matter how hard you defend him by attacking ppl on a personal level. They just want you to continue lowering your moral standards and keep licking their trophies.
It’s hypocritical of any top tier team to criticise another about tapping up players. It’s not as if they haven’t done it to other teams of lesser stature.
Fabregas made a choice,so sad Arsenal doesn’t see him as a Legend but he is up there with Henry and in Chelsea he was unplayable,even in Barca he was dame good …He’s the reason I love football
I remember how much Manchester United wanted him aswell but in the end he chose Barcelona over us and then every year till he left we were linked with a move for Fabregas.
Barca had that thing with Unicef and playing football the "right way" but honestly they've been scummy trash for a very long time now - fouling and diving in equal measure. The fact that they wasted Cesc when he got there is a crime, but he's not the first or last talent to go that way
He came to Barcelona for nothing. He could’ve stayed at Arsenal and be a Legend. He was nothing but a glorified sub at Barcelona and it costed him the rest of his career.
I would say that karma had its way, Cesc and Guardiola ended up on terrible terms, with Pep refusing to shake his hand in a match. Pep ended up resigning, one of the reasons other than hating Rosell is that he had "a mole" in his team, suspected to be Fabregas. So Barca ends up losing their best manager and Cesc never won a UCL. Also terrible for Arsenal as it started a trend of the club being seen a "selling" club and lead an exodus towards other clubs. A lesson in mismanagement.
You drill down on Barcelona and you can easily start to dislike them. I really wish Sociedad could win the league now! I remember elements of this, but didn't realize the level of "tapping up' or "tampering" as it would be called in North America. There really should be have been huge fines. It's interesting that his Barca career ended up being short, and while he was very good there, did not become the player he was expected to become (though he was a part of the 2011 CL win). His career rather peaked at Arsenal in fact. Then going to career-killing Chelsea.
My 2 all time favorite players are Cesc Fábregas and Bastian Schweinsteiger, thanks for the video and I know eventually you will make one for the fusballgod
I still can't forgive Barcelona for the way they behaved and can never wish them well. I used to adore Puyol for his Euros and World Cup Display , I started hating the way he behaved in this whole saga
@@grealish2234being huge doesnt automatically make you respectable. Sure, barca were getting all the trophies, but they they showed no class by being so entitled . Not to mention all the "More than a club" BS
I mean the Mbappe sage comes close since Real Madrid have been flirting with him for 6 years it maybe not be the craziest but the longest transfer saga ever that is for sure.
Yo can we pause for a moment and talk about how MLS team's are actually in a Dominant position to win the whole thing? League's Cup is basically a Concacaf UCL 2.0 ... Kinda giving us a good idea where both Leagues are 😂
Barcelona is a despicable club with virtually no ethics and respect for other clubs and players. The way they poach and unsettle players but unwilling to pay the market value fees, and the way how they displace these players once they run out of favors… is just pathetic. I am so glad to see that this club is in a world of financial troubles. I hope this club will succumb to it
Nah not really Barca were interested in Griezmann in the 2018 summer they didn't get him they got him the summer after for 120 mil he flopped and Atletico signed him back.
Yeah I still hate the guy. Definitely not an Arsenal legend for me and it’s quite upsetting that all of a sudden he wants to come back when we’re better now.
Man Cesc had that air about him right at the very beginning…you know..that I will return to barça one day … Besides all this talk …and let’s face it …he flopped …