The Road Ahead

CESC FABREGAS - EL CAPTIAN

This is undoubtedly a hard moment for all of us. Something which we saw coming. Something which was inevitable. The moment I personally dreaded since the day I saw those Catalan goons pull the Barca jersey over our Capitan last summer.

The season which followed saw less and less of Cesc, plagued by injuries as he was. This preseason was worse. To know he was still in London but not training with our squad, not travelling to Asia, not playing against Köln, Benfica or in the Emirates Cup, leaving at half time in the one game he did attend at the Emirates Cup - it all hurt.

But in his defense, he kept away from the media. Through all the allegations levelled against him, he did not say a word against the club he owes so much to and I look forward to what he has to say after he leaves. I humbly request everyone here, and otherwise, to refrain from dragging his name through the dirt. As long as he wore our shirt, he wore it with pride, love and passion. And let us join in respecting him for that.

It is well established that Cesc will have a hard time to break into the starting XI at his new club. I disagree, with a heavy heart. Cesc is the best midfielder in Europe and he will add a lot to any team that he is a part of. Barcelona have secured the services of one of the greatest player of these times and he will shine there, as he deserves to. I hope he has a great career ahead of him. He wasn't able to win anything with us, but I hope success follows him everywhere from now.


WHY, OH WHY, DID WE SELL HIM FOR PEANUTS?

Don't blame the board. This move was what Fabregas wanted. And to be really honest, I have not felt this proud of being a gooner in a long long time. We relented on what we could have got for a player of his caliber to grant him what he desired. We did the right thing. We showed our class in being above the Catalans in not arguing over petty cash to show what we really mean by saying "we value our players". Valueing players is not monetary, its about understanding them and growing with them. To achieve what the club wants and to help them achieve what they want. And I feel proud of supporting a club which does this in a time where money is everything and players behave more like mercenaries.

LIFE WITHOUT CESC

But I deviate from the topic of this post in my affection for a man who gave so much to us. The question I wish to turn my attention to now is, what lies ahead? What is in store for us after the Fabregas era? Are people right to write us off at this point?

This is a complicated bunch of questions to answer. In one line, I can say, in Wenger we trust. In one line, I can say, ARSENAL is bigger than any one player (or two, but I do not wish to talk about Nasri now).

"WHAT IS THE BOARD DOING? WILL WE SPEND THE MONEY? WHO WILL WE BUY?"

Justified questions, no doubt. These and a myriad others, plagueing our minds and torturing our souls. What I want to draw your attention towards is what is Arsenal. What it means to play for Arsenal. What it means to support Arsenal. Being a gooner for close to a decade makes me feel in the right position to talk about this. And that is what I intend to do here.

Arsenal is more than Wenger's philosophy. It is more than a club. It is more than a player. To pull on an Arsenal shirt is to understand the passion behind it, to understand what "goonerdom" is, to fight, to win, to be successful.

We did not become a big club in the last 15 years under Wenger, though that had a big say in cementing our position as a global brand. Arsenal is, and will always be a big club. And the loss of the best player in our team is going to hurt us, but we will pull through this, of that I am sure.

1) Trust the board. Despite all the media bashing Wenger and Co. have received, the board has seen this moment coming. The interest in Martin, Ayew and Jadson is not a surprise. Trust the board to have forseen this situtaion and work behind the prying eyes of the media to have some replacements lined up. It may even be an unknown player, but I trust Wenger's scouting network to deliver the goods, as always.

2) "More young/inexperienced players? They won't win us anything!" While this is very true, I see a definite change in the mindset of the current squad. There is a fire and a determination, hitherto unforseen. I refer to the players who are still with us, who know what it is to pull on a Arsenal shirt and to fight tooth and nail to get the points into the bag. A return to the days of loyal club-loving players who will rally around each other and play as a team. Unlike the last time, when our young team grew into a team of superstars who saw beyond Arsenal, we now have a young squad who see only Arsenal. We have a new backbone, and this is here to stay. For a long long time to come.

3) This brings me to the mainstay of my post (rant). The current squad. While we all realize that it is difficult to see more short passing captivating tikky takka football, I still see us dominating with the possession. A look at recent acquisitions suggest a change in tack from the manager. We are going to see more direct football with more penetration and more goal threat. We have been criticised for not shooting, but I see that changing. We won't create opportunities from defense splitting passes like we have been accustomed to, but we will see direct fast attacks. And a return to the glory days of counter attacking pacy football. A tweak in the philosophy, a tweak in our approach, a change for the better.

Maybe I am summarizing things we already know, but this is just to remind ourselves of what we do have.

We will grow now as a team. We stand at the cusp of a new beginning, a fresh start. We are on the verge of heralding an era of glory, "a decade of trophies". In this, I truly believe.

Quality? Check.
Technical ability? Check.
Dominating possession? Check.
Pace? Check.
Defensive grit? Check. (Nobody is going to mention Squillachi here, for the sake of letting me rant.)
Passion? Check.
Love for the crest? Check.
ARSENAL? CHECK.

So rest assured my dear brothers, this is not the end. This is a new better beginning. And our manager has made the right moves this time.

Ooh to be a gooner. Gooner till I die.

I know there are already a couple of threads on this topic, but I felt the need to let it all out. It is a bit lengthy and it took more than the 15-20 minutes I had asked for, but I thank you all for your patience (and hopefully, understanding).

Gooner for life.

How could you say that we are doing something wrong by selling Fabregas, when keeping Fabregas goes against the clubs tradition? Literally, Victoria Concordia Crescit, VICTORY THROUGH HARMONY. We sure didn't have any harmoney while he was here disrupting our squad. This is not our darkest time, in fact it is very bright. Not too long ago we were in 12th place. A few years later we were invincible.

I am not saying that we will go unbeaten again, what I'm saying is, that this is ARSENAL ! We have one hell of a future...and PRESENT. Between our answer to xaviesta in Jack The Ripper and King Rambo, RVP , our young monsters Gervinho and Walcott, we have a great attack. If you look at the defense, what makes Gibbs so different from Clichy? Clichy had to replace Cole, but do you know whats the difference between the two? was that CLICHY HAD THE FULL SUPPORT OF THE ARSENAL FANS !

Gibbs arguably has more potential then Clichy ever had , and is absolutely fantastic on the counter-attack, and if kept fit he is an adequate replacement and has the potential to be a fantastic replacement. The heart of defense which contains the monster that is Vermaelen and Koscielny ( SRI, CHECK THE SPELLING ON THAT ) has great, great potential. Dare I say, more then Kolo and Gallas'. They are similar, but maybe that's what they have to they're advantage? Vermaelen knows what Kos wants to do, and Kos knows what Vermaelen has to do, both of them are amongst the best in the world at intercepting and are strong and great in the air. There is no other defender other then Nemanja Vidic that is better on the 1 on 1 then them.

With Djourou on the bench , he is a more then adequate replacement as he shined last season. His monster physique and intelligence on the pitch is a very big plus for us, not to mention his confidence as of late. We have a weak point in Squillaci, but we have a promising point in Miguel and Bartley. Let's face it, as much as we talk about it, who other then Chelsea has 2 GREAT back up CBs? That is what separates us from the other clubs, we want the BEST! Nothing is good enough for us. I need not say anything about the great Sagna. We have a dilemma in GK as to start Wojeich or Fabianski.

Now that we got our first XI covered, let's see what other positives we have to look forward to.
RVP took his captain armband, and he deserves it. With RVP leading us, the players can look towards someone who will lead us, who lead us against Barcelona, in the final and is Mr. Arsenal himself. He is vocal, he is excellent, he is experienced, he's been here for a while, he is the man. His replacement is just as good, as Vermaelen is one of the youngest men to ever captain Ajax and captains Belgium on a national scale.

just adding to thread, great thread Sri.

@Ali - Thanks man. Much appreciated.

The way I see it, its the time for all of us to stick together and get behind our team.

I didn't want to take specific names since the post was already lengthy but I think you have made some great observations to add to what I have said.

Special mention here to Carl Jenkinson. He has convinced me of his quality in pre season and most definitely, he knows the meaning of pulling on our shirt.

Also, I think Miquel + Bartley is as good as Jones + Smalling. in a couple of years.

Great thread.

Brilliant thread mate. Truly shows Arsenal's actual care for Fabregas.

nice share.. Hope it reinjects some hope and energy to the needed fans here...
IN ARSENE WE TRUST...
GOONER FOR LIFE..!

Guys the Cesc saga is done, he no longer a gunner, will not mention him again.

BTW well said SRI.

Fantastic post. Can't say I disagree with anything you've said.

Only things I can add are:

1) In any competitive environment, someone will always step up to fill the void left behind by someone of high quality. It happens with every team, and it's happened with us numerous time throughout history:

Ian Wright was replaced by Anelka, who was then later replaced by Thierry Henry. When Henry left, Adebayor improved his game and when Adebayor left, van Persie started banging in the goals.

When Vieira left, guess who took his spot? Cesc Fabregas. Now Fabregas is gone, guess who's going to fill in? Wilshere and Ramsey.

See, the young midfielders at the club now aren't going to thinnk "oh, we've lost a great player. Now what do we do?" No. They're going to think "yes, this is my chance!"

It was in this very same scenario that guys like Fabregas and Henry became world class players in the first place.

2) Wenger is a smart man. He'll realise now that without the player he's built this system around, we can't play the same way. Signing direct players like Gervinho and Chamberlain in fact already shows that he's prepared for life without such a great playmaker.

3) Right now isn't the time to predict doom and gloom. September 1st is when we should really started defining our expectations for this season, simply because that's when the transfer window ends. There're still just over two weeks for Arsenal to do some good business.

And I'm damn sure that if we qualify for the Champions League and get good results against Liverpool and United the mood amongst the fans wil considerably improve.

I think if we didn't go in the CL for a year we would come back stronger then ever but I don't really want that.

Great post Jay, everyone's getting their inner spirit on lol

tsgooner1 wrote:Great thread.

MJGunner wrote:Brilliant thread mate. Truly shows Arsenal's actual care for Fabregas.

Wilson37 wrote:nice share.. Hope it reinjects some hope and energy to the needed fans here...
IN ARSENE WE TRUST...
GOONER FOR LIFE..!

Raptorgunner wrote:Guys the Cesc saga is done, he no longer a gunner, will not mention him again.

BTW well said SRI.

Thanks guys. If I have made you feel positive of what is ahead of us, even for a few minutes, then I would consider this a mission accomplished.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Fantastic post. Can't say I disagree with anything you've said.

Only things I can add are:

1) In any competitive environment, someone will always step up to fill the void left behind by someone of high quality. It happens with every team, and it's happened with us numerous time throughout history:

Ian Wright was replaced by Anelka, who was then later replaced by Thierry Henry. When Henry left, Adebayor improved his game and when Adebayor left, van Persie started banging in the goals.

When Vieira left, guess who took his spot? Cesc Fabregas. Now Fabregas is gone, guess who's going to fill in? Wilshere and Ramsey.

See, the young midfielders at the club now aren't going to thinnk "oh, we've lost a great player. Now what do we do?" No. They're going to think "yes, this is my chance!"

It was in this very same scenario that guys like Fabregas and Henry became world class players in the first place.

2) Wenger is a smart man. He'll realise now that without the player he's built this system around, we can't play the same way. Signing direct players like Gervinho and Chamberlain in fact already shows that he's prepared for life without such a great playmaker.

3) Right now isn't the time to predict doom and gloom. September 1st is when we should really started defining our expectations for this season, simply because that's when the transfer window ends. There're still just over two weeks for Arsenal to do some good business.

And I'm damn sure that if we qualify for the Champions League and get good results against Liverpool and United the mood amongst the fans wil considerably improve.

I feel you man. I have been harping on points 1 and 2 that you have raised for quite a while now. But at a time when there seems to be so much depression among the fans, it serves well to remind ourselves of these very things. Felt good to read your post mate, thanks!

Also, on the question of Liverpool and ManUtd, I think we will have really good games. Because more often than not, we raise our game when we play big teams. Last season was a testimony to that.

Squad against ManUtd at the Emirates last season: Wojciech Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Song, Robin van Persie

Put in Vermalen into the defense, Gibbs (read ali's post on why we can trust him), and Miyachi for Nasri. I think we actually have a better team there!

With the two best all round under 21 midfielders in the world I have no worries with our future. If they continue to steadily improve we have nothing to worry about.

good thread

Great thread ya ,I just have 2say ,I really hope that Cesc's move won't affect asn player's .it would be horrid really. Simply, CESC wanted to leave...that's it..We gonna respect his decision n be gratefull 2him 4ever ,for everything he did in ASN....YEAH we have the road ahead to go now...Good Luck CAPTAIN.

all i can say is that the Badge upfront is greater than the name Behind the shirt.

Yeah, I didn't get a name on my shirt so I can make sure I don't get a traitor like Adebayor or something >D.
And hey, you didn't check off creativity and vision :3

Creativity and vision? I'll do that once we sign his replacement

I always had the feeling that when Fabregas finally left, we become a much more solid squad and don't depend totally on him. Also, we finally get a real leader.

Hopefully my prophecy becomes truth

Okay, I see ya'll are hopeful and optimistic! And I totally respect that, I mean I love it. It makes me feel a little better and reassured of our current situation.

But still I gotta say: how are we gonna play without Fabregas.

I know some of you will agree that we juz play poorer without Cesc. I mean juz think of last season. Take into account the matches that Cesc played in and those that he didn't. Compare them...

Yes! That's right. We're much more better in attack when we had Cesc, we got that extra creativity, we got the confidence when Cesc is on the field, cause we know he'll create chances for his teammates or himself. In simple we were more livelier when Cesc played.

But now without him. What are we gonna do? We have Jack, Andrei, Tomas, and Aaron that can replace Cesc.

But are they gonna replicate what Cesc has done for us. In particular, this season.

I think this is gonna be one of our hardest seasons ever. We need to find that winning formula without Cesc, that great attack and solid defense, and believe me we're gonna get that. I know we will, but i doubt that it'll happen soon. It will take some time, imo.

That's why I say this season it's gonna be tough. Though, I really really hope im wrong.

Juz saying guys.

El_Gunner wrote:Okay, I see ya'll are hopeful and optimistic! And I totally respect that, I mean I love it. It makes me feel a little better and reassured of our current situation.

But still I gotta say: how are we gonna play without Fabregas.

I know some of you will agree that we juz play poorer without Cesc. I mean juz think of last season. Take into account the matches that Cesc played in and those that he didn't. Compare them...

Yes! That's right. We're much more better in attack when we had Cesc, we got that extra creativity, we got the confidence when Cesc is on the field, cause we know he'll create chances for his teammates or himself. In simple we were more livelier when Cesc played.

But now without him. What are we gonna do? We have Jack, Andrei, Tomas, and Aaron that can replace Cesc.

But are they gonna replicate what Cesc has done for us. In particular, this season.

I think this is gonna be one of our hardest seasons ever. We need to find that winning formula without Cesc, that great attack and solid defense, and believe me we're gonna get that. I know we will, but i doubt that it'll happen soon. It will take some time, imo.

That's why I say this season it's gonna be tough. Though, I really really hope im wrong.

Juz saying guys.

I agree that we can't play the same game anymore. Thats why I feel we will grow and mature as a team and play a little more directly now. Our players have to elevate their levels, no doubt. But we will have a tough season only if we try to do the same thing that we did last season, this time without Cesc. A change in our approach is warranted, and our signings give me an inclination of us doing just that.

finally, a sigh of relief somehow. once Nasri leaves, i will be more than happy. anyway, this transfer came 1\2 years late. but anyway, its time for Ramshere to prove themselves now. though i am sad we lost a very good player, i am happy we let an unhappy player leave. after all, what are we gonna remeber him with? his back heel against barca? maybe some here have good memories of him, but for someone who won us nothing, all i can say is good-riddence. if we dont win nothing this season, it wont be because we let him go afterall. its high time we play with players who wants to play for us with their hearts. now im waiting for Nasri fo follow suit.

"We lost a world-class player and we are sad about that," said Wenger. "We fought to keep him but in the end we have to respect the desire of the player as well. This Club is 125 years-old this season and many big players left and yet the Club went on. We want to show that we have the strengths and unity to fight as we ever did at this Club.

"What is important now is to focus on our targets. Life goes on and we want to show we have the needed desire and strength to deal with the situation.

"It was my decision and I submitted that decision to the board and to the chairman.

"Everybody has his opinion but, at the end of the day, you have to make decisions. To get the best out of a player, he needs to be completely committed to where he is and Cesc wanted to go back to his home city.

"But if you understand one thing, it is Cesc did not go for financial reasons, or that he did not love this Club. Cesc went because he was desperate to play for his hometown team, where he was educated. It is very difficult to resist to that.

"But we wish good luck to Cesc, who is a great player, and in my opinion one of the best players in the world."