Cesc Fabregas in El Pais
15 October 2008
There is an interview with Cesc in today’s edition of El Pais. We’ve translated (guestimated) it into english, as best we can. If you are fluent in spanish and want to correct any mistakes please leave a message in the comments. Don’t be shy, we know our spanish is bad and we will be grateful for any help!
“I need to face the ball”
Question. In Mexico, in 1986, Belgium eliminated Spain in the quarterfinals which were decided on penalties. Eloy missed. Is this familiar?
Answer. I had never heard that story. It was a year before I was born. And I have not heard of Eloy.
Q. What has winning the Euro 2008 meant for you?
A. It was an eye-opener to me in the summer when I discovered that it was possible to arrive at a big final [Euro 2008], win it and enjoy the whole experience tremendously.
That brought me loads of extra confidence and, frankly, makes me all the more hungry to repeat the process.
Q. Are you half the player for Spain that you are for Arsenal?
A. Quite the topic of discussion… I do not think too much about it because I know I’m still young. I play in a different way [for Spain] and I try to adapt. In Tallinn, in the last part of the match, I played in my position because Xavi was playing in an attacking role behind Torres. I feel more comfortable there… I am not an attacking midfielder who plays with his back to the goal because I don’t have the necessary body nor the agility. I need to face the ball and the spaces because I am not very fast or agile. My game is based on my passing and vision.
Q. Would you benefit from a 4-5-1?
A. Nowadays we play in 5-4-1 with Spain and at Arsenal it’s always 4-4-2. At Arsenal I can move, do what I think I must do. The boss doesn’t make me to do anything. I feel free.
With Spain it is different, you touch the ball, make lots of controls. There (in England) it’s more about counter attacks and going as quickly as possible in front of the goal.
Q. Surprised to score a header against Sunderland.
A. It’s rare because I’m used to scoring set pieces including corners, and I’m not good at headers. But I’d like to improve because a midfielder that can head the ball is more efficient.
Q. What other areas would you like to improve?
A. Most of all I must improve defensively. I always want to attack, to score, to deliver, it’s my dream.
Q. How is your ego (state of mind)?
A. My ego is totally under control. After the Euros, you return to work with total humility. I do not believe that we are going to get ahead of ourselves. We have achieved success in one way, and we are not going to change it…
Q. Do you mind being in the background?
A. No. I Know very well who I am. I note a change when I am with Spain, but it’s normal. I do not play and so people don’t notice me. I am 21 years old and still have a lot to learn. In England I feel very important, but you should remain humble when you play football.
Q. Would you give the Ballon D’or to Xavi?
A. I would very much like to see the position of midfielder valued. Xavi, Iniesta and I are, as they say in England, box to box players. We run many miles. We have to attack, to defend, to distribute, to be intelligent to seek openings. It is not valued, except with Zidane, who was also not a pure midfielder but also half forward.
Q. What does Del Bosque contribute?
A. He is very smart, very quiet. He has coached at Madrid and has won many titles. I will try to do what it takes to play.
Q. How will the team be in 2010?
A. We are a very young team. I’ll be 23 years old and the best age for a CM is between 24 and 28. We will have a big role if we go with the same humility and ambition. There are players who peak late and operate at 32 to an unbelievable level.
Q. How important was your penalty goal against Italy in the Euros?
A. Is a moment that I always wanted to live. I had unexpected luck because I was not a starter. I came on in the last ten minutes, plus extra time. Besides, I am not usually a penalty taker. I did not expect Luis to ask me to take the fifth one. I thought it would be Villa
Q. Do you know why you were asked?
A. He never told me. Is a moment that has to be lived. If I could place the ball and be waiting for ten minutes, I would do it. I never thought that I could fail.
Q. You’re very positive?
A. I’m not an extrovert, but I think a lot of things in bed or at home when I’m alone.
Q. In the field too much thought?
A. There it is more instinctive. A pass, however much you think about it, you can not make it unless you see it.
Q. Flamini, Hleb and Senderos have left Arsenal and now Nasri and Vela have joined.
A. We have a short squad and we are very young, behind me Denilson and Song play, and they are 20. Walcott is 19 and Nasri is 21. Can you imagine I’m the oldest midfielder? Winning will be tough for us because we don’t have a lot of expereince.
Q. Last season you scored 14 goals
A. Last season I scored a lot because I had Rosicky, and Flamini who used to run all over the pitch. Hleb as well, who is like my brother. The team played with a lot of skilful touches, we were as solid as a brick wall and our opponents would not get a look in. They have gone now and I feel weird. We are more conservative and strong, but with less touches.
Q. You want to return to Spain?
A. I’m not the kind of guy to make a decision to stay and then start crying about how much I want to leave all of a sudden, Arsenal have given me everything since I was 16 and I’d never announce that I’m itching to get back to Spain out of respect to the fans, the club and my team mates for a start.
Q. The secret of Wenger?
A. Arsene Wenger has crystal clear ideas, there isn’t another manager like him. He manages very well. He prefers not to spend money but to trust in youth because he believes that Walcott can’t reach his full potential if you sign a Cristiano [Ronaldo].
Q. What do you think of business magnates buying clubs?
A. It hasn’t happened at Arsenal. For them it’s like a hobby, like a toy. If you do not like something one month, you just change it.
Q. Has it been hard to play in England?
A. When you leave your family and friends when you are young and you have to deal with problems on your own, it makes you grow up fast.
Q. Now you have received an offer to write a book?
A. Yes, but what am I going to write at 23 years? I don’t know maybe when I am 35, when I retire, then I will.
Q. Are you fluent in English?
A. Football slang, yes, but it taxes me to read. I’m too lazy.
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Cesc isn’t a machine and after the summer maybe he wants to play with more mature players and win something with Arsenal cos he really loves the club.
If we dont win anything and he leaves next summer I will not blame him. Yes the youth policy is good but the club must also be able to compete right now. I cant be fooled. Maybe there are not the required funds to acquire and compete. If so i salute Arsene for getting on with his job quietly and hoping for the best but Cesc can’t be expected to hope for the best foreva
I think more players should be candid like Cesc I don’t think he should be less honest. It is refreshing. Good on him!
yeah you might be right. I guess maybe it was his way of saying no comment because he knows anything he says might land him in trouble,,,
I wouldn’t take it like that George. Especially after what happened the last time he said he would like to return to Spain “one day” lol
He now knows that option = deep sh*t doesn’t it lol I think his response is logical, he has worked out there is no such thing as a safe or acceptable answer when it comes to the media. It is better to say out of respect to the club etc I can not talk on the topic, I can not answer, I ain’t going there and you aint gonna make me!! LOL
I mean hell I would definitely answer the way he answered so I think mj is right he has said nothing to suggest what his future plans are and what his timetable is, so let’s all just let things be.
oh and sorry bri! I didn’t mean to make you feel you had to surrender. I understand what you are saying
well,,. the thing is mj I don’t take the quote you pointed out the way you take it.
They asked him if he wanted to return to Spain.
He didn’t say no.
He didn’t say, some day but many years away.
He said ‘I can’t say, out of respect for the my fans, club and colleagues. mj in my book that is the same as saying
Yes I do but I can’t say that to the media as I still play at Arsenal and everyone will be upset if I say that.
I mean if his answer would be fine with fans, the club and colleagues then he can give it, yes? So why out of respect can’t he say?
Well to me there is only one answer to that and that is because he knows he shouldn’t tell the media he wants to leave Arsenal with 8 months left of the season.
I mean he has decided to stay this year and so hes not going to say on the record he wants to go but that doesn’t mean he won’t leave next Summer.
Sorry mj I just think there has been too many quotes this week and he has been managing to talk to the media without these problems for years. So maybe he is sending a message.
hey hey Georgie! Well he hasn’t said he is going to leave and so I refuse to think about it until he does. I mean you never know maybe we can win something and maybe we will get a DM in Jan
Man, I just hope that he doesn’t leave. Cos it does sound a little like he might be a bit frustrated with things. I’m not so worried about what he said about the age and expereince of the squad. I’m way more worried that he said the team isn’t playing as well… not so many touches ,,, because Cesc is a huge fan of a certain style of football and if he isn’t enjoying his football ,,, if he doesn’t think the team plays the same style of football anymore then I could see him wanting to leave.
We need to get a decent DM in January. If we don’t he might get fed up. I wouldn’t blame him.
Cesc is absolutely right! Its just a case of an intelligent person stating the obvious. The team is young, the team is inexperienced, the team will have to overcome this so it will be tough for them.
Players have left. They are very obviously missed. Cesc is on the field he can feel there absence in a way that no fan can. Still we can all see just watching the games that we miss Flamini. The team has not been performing as well this season as they did at the same time last season.
Absolutely nothing scandalous in any of that. And I would think he has discussed it all with Arsene several times over. I am sure Arsene knows of these problems too.
I don’t understand the fuss to be honest.
When I read the interview yesterday I thought it was a nice interview especially this part
Q. You want to return to Spain?
A. I can not say that out of respect for my fans, my club and my colleagues. Arsenal has given me everything since I was 16. I have decided to stay and I am not one to turn around and cry that I want to go.
But after all the media said he was going to leave and ran that “non-quote” that never even said that!! Do you think anyone even mentions this part of this interview!!! Oh nooooooooo of course not!! B*st*rds!
I am very worried. It feels like the media is out to get him. Why are they seizing on everything he says that you can make something bad out of but they leave everything else out. It’s like a vendetta. If he doesn’t want to leave I am worried that by the time they have finished he will most certainly want to go home.
I think he needs to get like a really bada$$ media manager biatch who can handle this stuff, so he can just play football and they can minimise all this sh*t!!
OK OK *holds up white flag* I surrender! lol It’s just that I knew how people like the Sun would report this… and sure enough they have run the headline Cesc: Arsene messed it up
I just feel that we could do without this and that the players need to perhaps stop speaking to the media and focus on doing their talking on the pitch.
But you’re both rite that really Cesc didn’t say anything so bad, it’s just the way the media blows these things up
Sigh. When I translated the quotes yersterday and put them up here, I thought he might get into some trouble – especially the comment about it being hard to win anything with an inexperienced team. I sympathise with what he is saying, I mean he is the oldest in our midfield and 21 is YOUNG to have broken into the first team. Fergies “fledglings” were 21 when they were making their 1st team debuts at man u. And everyone was calling them “kids” they were senior citizens compared to our squad these days.
I don’t think what he said was an “attack” or that he was “criticizing” Arsene in anyway. After all none of the english media are running it, but as you can see above, he did praise Arsene during the interview as well. So why would he praise and criticise within the same interview if that was his intent. I think he was just being honest and honesty and the media don’t mix.
He didn’t say they wouldn’t win or that they couldn’t win, he simply said it would be hard. Well it’s true. We all know young players have more erratic form and we all know that 50% of any game is mental and that a lack of maturity and experience can place you at a disadvantage. No team with an average age as young as the Arsenal squad has won the Premier League or the Champions League in the last 30 years have they? What is the point in pretending it won’t be hard. It will be hard, really really hard! I don’t take that as a clear indication that Cesc doesn’t believe in the vision or the youth policy that Arsenal have – and he benefitted from – but how honest would it be for him to say it will be easy or not to acknowledge that we’re in unchartered waters and it will be difficult. I mean if Arsenal triumph I have thought it would be an ultimate under-dog story, I mean our team against Sunderland cost less than the Sunderland team on the field. We’ve spent very little money in how long? We are competing against large clubs with permanently open cheque books. It’s hard people, that’s not negative, that’s reality.
Oh and on what he said when he was asked about his goals, well he does miss those players. Those players gave him almost all of his assists for the 14 goals and he had put time and effort into building partnerships on the field with those guys and now things are different and hes feeling a little weird. The partnerships to support some of the spectacular free-flowing football we played, where the players seemed to be almost able to read each others minds, they are gone now, and must be re-built, it will take time. It’s not an easy time.
I think Cesc is guilty of only one thing and it is of having been a little too unguarded. I agree with what he said and in an ideal world he should be allowed to say it but, it’s not an ideal world and so realistically because of the way the media “spins” this stuff – it is better to be less candid in the public domain. As there will be fans who will take it the wrong way and so it will damage Cesc’s standing with some of the support who will perceive that he has been disloyal, and that is sad because I think Cesc has always shown tremendous loyalty to the club and to Wenger.
He really could use a good PR company to provide him with a spokesman/publicist with a good working knowledge of the media to give him a little more guidance about how to avoid ending up as headline fodder every 3 or 4 days because the last fortnight has not been good for Cesc. I hate watching the vicious media machine feeding on a 21 year old’s poor word choices, attempts at diplomacy and unguarded honesty. They deliberately take the quotes out of context, make bad translations and generally don’t care what damage they are doing so long as it sells papers.
Oops *blush* sorry for the book I always write too much when I’m upset.
Bri I agree with what Cesc said. Also what is the point in muzzling the players and preventing them from speaking? They have a greater vested interest in their success and the clubs success than we do, no matter how passionate we may be as fans, this is their career.
It seems to me there are three things that contribute to winning silverware aside from the manager -
1. The hunger of talented youth
2. Experience
3. Leadership
We have 1 in abundance but 2 and 3 are in short supply.
Every team needs a passionate leader, some one who can motivate on the field. Terry is mr Chelsea. Gerrard is mr liverpool, neville is mr Manu. Who is mr arsenal?? Fabregas? but hes 21 it’s unfair to expect him to carry that mantle at this age, there should be a more senior player who has that role but there isn’t one.
Experience is vital. Players who have been there and done it and know all the tricks in the book are necessary.
The youth are talented but they flap when things arent going their way. Let’s face it with 30 minutes to go against Hull we should have rallied there was time but we had a full scale collective on-field panic. Youngsters are more likely to do the wrong things at the wrong time. like passing instead of shooting in the box or shooting when it’s very low percentage and a team-mate is wide open and in a better position.
Experienced players would calm the situation down and our kids would develop much quicker with the guidance of an old head.
Cesc, Clichy, RvP seemed to develop at light speed with the likes of henry pires bergkamp and vieira around.
They are still developing their own game, they are still apprentices albeit senior ones but they are the ones who must now be the teachers? The burden is too big.
And without the presence of a strong onfield leader, a captain who can unite the team on the pitch we cant expect too much too soon. Most of them haven’t won anything. They dont know how to win any other way then plan A. We have a team full of potential, but potential is for the future and players who have already gone 3 season with no club success will grow impatient with waiting.
I think the lad has shown restraint Bri.
Hmmm I’m a bit worried by his attitude – he’s a diplomatic guy usually – so if he says we don’t have the experience on the team to win – then that has to mean he really doesn’t think the team has any chance of winning a major trophy and it is only October.
This plus William Gallas having a mini nervous breakdown in the media and sobbing about his form and how Arsenal lack a winning mentality, I think he said we need to be more like Chelsea, yeah… well it doesn’t inspire confidence does it.
So basically what we are hearing is “NO BELIEF” great.
If I was Arsene Wenger I would lock the whole team in a room and lay down the law, it’s about time self-indulgent, unhelpful or negative comments stopped coming out of this team. He has to do something, it’s too early in the season to lay down and die.
YaY!!! CeSc 2 StArTs!!! GOOOOO CESC!!!!!
Thank you! Nice interview. I agree with Cesc we need more experience in midfield.
Cute! I hope Cesc good luck 2nite!! Go Spain!!
Respect to the guy for what he said about a possible book deal. It’s refreshing to hear a player say he does not want to cash in and write an earth shattering book about how they go to sleep to the sound of a hair-dryer…
And several Arsenal fans tragically died whilst reading Cashley Hole’s book, it was terrible, it was so boring, they just lost the will to live…
Cute. i totally adore the guy. Full of talent, respect and humility!
Good luck to cescy wif Spain…annnnnd…C’MON ARSENAL!!!!
Arsenal.4.Life.x