Cesc Fabregas has revealed why he didn’t return to Arsenal after his short stint at Spanish giants, Barcelona.
Fabregas ended up at Chelsea, to the surprise of many, stirring up anger from a section of the Arsenal fan base.
Fabregas left Arsenal and returned to Barcelona in 2011 but just three years later the midfielder was on the move once again.
Arsenal had a first option to buy Fabregas but despite spending eight years with the Gunners, the midfielder ended up making a surprise switch to Chelsea, who were managed by Jose Mourinho at the time.[wpvideo 8gQ9KGPG data-temp-aztec-id=”b2d69372-d3e0-40db-ace7-9135c3789d8a”]Fabregas has subsequently admitted that his preference was to return to Arsenal and he was waiting for his former club to trigger their option.
But Wenger said he was keen to use Fabregas as a warning for players in Arsenal’s squad who were thinking about leaving.
In an interview with The Athletic, Wenger said: “It was general guidance for me to make the players realise that if you here, you don’t come back. It was a way to retain the players who wanted to see if the grass was greener elsewhere.
“I did it for Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell, Jens Lehmann but they were different. The young players who left I didn’t like to do it.”
Fàbregas came through La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy, leaving at 16 when he was signed by Premier League club Arsenal in September 2003. Following injuries to key midfielders in the early part of the 2004–05 season, he went on establish himself in the team. He broke several of the club’s records in the process, earning a reputation as one of the best players in his position, and won the FA Cup in 2005. After a protracted transfer saga, Fàbregas left London on 15 August 2011 to return to Barcelona in a deal worth up to £35 million.
He returned to London in June 2014 to Arsenal’s cross-town rivals Chelsea for a fee of £30 million, and in his first year there he helped to secure League Cup and Premier League triumphs.
