Exactly, Its not like any of the players listed were available to us and we passed them up in favour of Fabregas. We may have enquired about all 3 and got 3 resounding "f**k off"s.
Even if available, Modric and Pogba would probably cost 40 million plus at the moment so Cesc at around 27-30m is good business. Premier league proven and counts as home grown. Not sure what there isn't to love about this deal. I also think Fabregas is easily in Modric's league and was probably a better player in the P.L than Modric was at Spurs.
Fabregas is better than Modric and more effective. I would've loved us to get Pogba but I think that's pretty impossible now unless we offload Ramires and/or Mikel and are then prepared to pay an extortionate amount.
Maybe Jose knew it would be hard to get Koke, Modric and Pogba, so he made sure he got someone. You may not rate Fab, but to say he is not in the same league as Modric and Pogba is harsh. Pogba has had, two good seasons at Juve. Fabregas had six good seasons at Arsenal, 89 caps with World Cup winners Spain etc, won La Liga
Tbh, unless we win every game 4-0 with 11 homegrown players playing like Brazil 70, he will never be happy.
Bottom line is, Lampard has gone, and we have replaced him with a World class midfielder, who is in his prime, for a relatively decent price, considering some of the ridiculous prices banded about these days, plus he is PL proven, and counts as a homegrown player. So its a big win for me. He is a totally different player to the Lampard of old, in that he isnt much of a runner, but he plays in the same position and is an awesome passer of the ball and has a great eye for the game, like OAP Lampard but better, plus he and Costa know each other from the Spain squad so that may also work to our advantage. I just cant see the negatives here CP.
Only because maybe we could have got Pogba or Koke or Modric all of whom I rate higher. Modric does seem to be on the radar, if we did get him , the Fabregas would be a cracking option to change the formation. As the "main man" ? Time will tell, and I hope he does work out for him and us.
And I think believing or convincing yourself, that everyone we buy and everything we do is fabulous, is naive. I'll leave that to others. Besides, everything written on here by everyone is just an opinion, and no one knows anything anyway.
Equally cockish is believing that everything we do is not good enough and being all "Woe is me" all the time.
But we have to go off the quality of the player we are signing currently, and he is currently a world class midfielder who is home-grown and PL proven.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...-insists-he-told-barcelona-he-wanted-to-leave Turns out Barca didn't want him gone after all.
Not really true. It's not as if we have blind faith we've signed a good player in Fabregas. This is a guy who has been competing at a high level for practically 10 years, has played for Barcelona and Arsenal, has won the World Cup and La Liga, features regularly for one of the best national teams we have seen, is premier league proven and at 27, pretty much at his peak. He may turn our **** but there is nothing to suggest he will so I don't see the point in getting down on such a signing before we know. Half the fun of being a football fan is the optimism new seasons and new signings bring. Lighten up CP!!
This Costa is more of a risk, as he is not PL proven, but again, what is the point in being pessimistic about it. In both cases, everything points to us having signed 2 World class players, if that isnt reason for optimism, I dont know what is. Of course there will always be signings like Chris Sutton, Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres, but if one or both players fails to deliver, I will be disappointed, but am sure I will live
Sometimes in life you don't get the prettiest girl. Same with transfers. Fabregas may not be one of the top three fashionable midfielders to buy at the moment. But he is still one of the best midfielders in the world. And if Pogba, modric and Koke all stay put, fabregas will turn out to be the best midfielder available in the market. We don't want to leave it late like last season and end up with Eto on deadline day and Matic in feb
Exactly. We could spend all summer chasing a Modric like we did before and ended up with Meireles or as you say Rooney/Eto'o last year. World class deals are very hard to get done. Pogba and Koke are just this seasons 'names'. They may well have brilliant careers but are still relatively young and unproven (especially in England). Last year everyone was waxing lyrically about Isco and he has gone to Madrid and had a quiet season. I do wonder of these people who go on about the likes of Pogba are basing it on hearsay or have actually watched enough games to form a true opinion. I'd be the first to admit I've barely seen him play. Fabregas on the other hand...
Exactly this, very few people would watch Serie A and Juve got knocked out the Champions League early this year. The money being talked about for Pogba seems crazy to me.