Would you exchange money for Cesc?

[Biggus]

I was thinking about the problem of Fabregas, how Wenger doesn't seem to be interested in buying a DM to free him up, yet loves Denilson and Diaby, who haven't actually played that badly but just don't compliment him.
Now lets just say we finish trophyless (I know Wengerites, it's a weird way out hypothetical but imagine for a second) and Cesc wants to win things and has had enough here and Barca or Real come in with a huge offer, should we take it? should we stop trying to build a team around him and play a style that suits him and play to our remaining players strengths? Would you trust Wenger to strengthen the side with the money or would he just stuff it into the mattress with the rest of the loot.
What's your take on this.

 

[kamikaze80]

theoretically, if cesc were to continue not to give 100%, i'd accept a 50m offer, but for some weird reason, there dont seem to be too many top notch CMs available at the moment, so i dont think we could replace cesc even if we wanted to. so my short answer would be no, but hypothetically, it would be yes.

 

[Biggus]

Okay then 50M pounds seems a decent ball park figure.

 

[progman07]

Okay then 50M pounds seems a decent ball park figure.

I don't think Wenger could use that money well. I fear he would act the same as he did after the departure of Flamini. He would say he trusts the team and Denilson/Diaby are doing so well.
Also, with Cesc we have commercial benefits, too, imagine how many Cesc shirts are bough all over the world. I can't see people in Asia buying a Denilson shirt, so we would lose money, too, not only win from that sell.

And most importantly, selling our best player is a small club mentality. maybe when he is 30 and burnt out, like Henry, we cal sell him, but definitely not now. Our youth policy has got lots of disadvantages, but the main advantage should be that the grown-up talents finally win us something. How can we ever win anything, if we keep selling our grown-up talent? Next we will sell Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela?

 

[Kain]

Hmmm one of the core problems that have irked us Gunners over the past few seasons is the never ending development of young players who then leave us before we can reap the rewards aka silverware and use us as a stepping stone to the AC Milans and Barcelona's, i honestly would hate to see this also happen with Cesc.

Cesc has so much experience for a young player do i need to list it? 200+ caps, consistantly getting the most assists each PL season, Cl experience (including a final) hes now broken into the international team with the formidable Spain, how can we put a price on that?

I was pretty shocked this summer with what happened as most of us were, no addition to squad depth infact it was the opposite a depletion, i dont think we need to sell anyone this year either we should work on adding to our squad not selling ourselves out of the top 4, if we want to win silverware selling the closest thing we have to a world class player doesnt come across as the best way to go about it.

Do we need the money?... its a good question that nobody bar Wenger and the backroom staff on the Arsenal board really know the answer to. I dont believe we do i think funds are availiable but i have no proof to back that claim its often an argument on thissite that goes round in circles.

 

[invisibleman18]

Thing is, even if we got a massive amount for him, how much of it would actually be spent on improving the squad? I expect Ramsey/Wilshere would probably be promoted to be closer to the first team and Wenger would continue with the same policy of building for the future.

Anyway, the preference is obviously to keep him. But it appears likely that he'll be wanting out next summer and if a player doesn't want to be here then there's not much point in keeping him here. I couldn't see us getting 50m in the current climate but if we were to hold out for the highest possible fee, the likes of Barca/Real/Milan and perhaps Chelsea would probably be willing to pay in excess of 30m perhaps approaching 35.

Thing is though, Wenger has his policy of letting players go if they want to leave and not holding clubs to ransom to squeeze every last penny out of them. Hence we don't tend to get big fees for our players (ie, maybe Henry was past his best, but was he really worth less than Darren Bent? Vieira similarly?) so perhaps he'd be let go for 25m if he so desparately wanted out and a deal could be done quickly. Although perhaps the situation with Adebayor changed that policy somewhat.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Sell our best player, let me think, erm no!

I also don't buy this bullshit about Cesc not giving a 100%.

 

[Biggus]

Well none of us disagree that Cesc is a great player nor do we want any more squad depletion, but is this team built around Cesc really working? If Wenger won't buy players to compliment him, maybe we'd be better off without him. You know I can't help noticing the parallels with Henry, another brilliant player who really needed others of similar stature around him to bring out his best, when Vieira and Pires left and Bergy faded so did Henrys star here.
I feel for us to bring out the best in Fabregas, Wenger will have to open the padlocks and dust the cobwebs off his wallet, otherwise we may as well sell him.

@ Invisible, to Chel$ki? f**k no! I'll take a cricket bat to his knees first!

 

[True Gooner]

Well, if he wants to leave then theres nothing we can do apart from ask for the highest fee possible.

But otherwise my answer is no. Yes, he is in a poor run of form and not as influential as he used to be - but there are a 100 other reasons for this apart from not "caring" enough.

It was the same with Vieria, Henry, Pires etc - just because their in a slump doesnt mean that their mind were on a transfer. Fabregas is a winner, and he knows that hes got a lot to prove so I seriously doubt that hes performances this season is because he doesnt "care" about the club. He couldnt pick himself up sufficiently for Man Utd - and those are the games that hes consistently done well in over the years. Hes in a slump - it was expected tbh since hes been playing far too much football over the past 3 years.

 

[Arai]

Ummm... not for now.

As I mentioned before, he needs consistent partner and some more time to build up link with our player like Nasri and Walcott.

May be he will bounce back right after Man. United game.Who knows

 

[KY]

If he loses the will to play for our team like ronaldo has for man utd... i don't see why not? keeping him will just be detrimental for him and us. in that case i'll take anything of 25-30million upwards.

 

[tactica442]

No. Why sell the team's best player?

If the causes to Cesc's off-form is due to the change of midfield and the post-Euro'08 syndrome, then we should hopw Wenger and Cesc to deal with them quickly. Selling Cesc is not the answer and sounds very silly.

 

[dutchMasta]

I don't want to sell anyone, partly because that I don't believe Wenger would spend the money we got from the sale(s), even if we get 100 mil.

If he DID, then 50m would do, and only if Cesc's heart isn't in it. If it is, then he's here for life, though I don't 100% believe it at the moment.

 

[alboots101]

I would and it has nothing to do with his ability or his personality..on pure business..todays footballers are a commodity and what with contractual buy out clauses and sell on fees and all the rest of the bollox that makes agents and lawyers money, why should`nt the club get something back for preparing a young proffessional a future.

On a pure footballing point i would hate to see him go but one man dont make a team and one player is not bigger than the club.

 

[ohboy!!!]

NO

If we sell Fabregas, it would be the biggest admission of our failure since the unbeaten year, and the change in policy.

Basically, it would mean we have wasted years trying to build a team around Cesc, only for us to fold. Cesc is the heartbeat of this team, all this talk of Diaby and Denilson replacing him is crazy. When he is on form, we are on form. Yes, he has not played well so far this season, but that just shows the weakness of the rest of the team, failing to shoulder the burden.

People are now commenting of his commitment now, which is just wrong. Instead of burying our heads in the sand, we have to admit that footballers want to win things, they want to be part of an competitive outfit. Cesc goes away for the summer, plays well for Spain and wins Euro 2008, and then come back to a team which loses some of it's best players, and then does not even replace them, let alone add to it! Hell most top players would be disgruntled, yet Cesc has not said anything publically.

Wenger replaced Vieira with Cesc, and we just have not built a team around him yet.

Cesc absolutely should not be sold if we have any ambition at all. This is not a Henry, Vieira situation, where they were 28,29 years old and allowed to leave. Cesc is our best player, and we should be using him to attract other players to the club.

Whether Cesc wants to go or not, he should not be sold.If we sell Cesc, then we would have just pulled up our skirt to the rest of the world. And any notion that we are a serious football club, and not a selling club, would have just flown out the window.

Sometimes transfers are bigger than money, they show what sort of football club you are

 

[SimplyFabregas]

NO

If we sell Fabregas, it would be the biggest admission of our failure since the unbeaten year, and the change in policy.

Basically, it would mean we have wasted years trying to build a team around Cesc, only for us to fold. Cesc is the heartbeat of this team, all this talk of Diaby and Denilson replacing him is crazy. When he is on form, we are on form. Yes, he has not played well so far this season, but that just shows the weakness of the rest of the team, failing to shoulder the burden.

People are now commenting of his commitment now, which is just wrong. Instead of burying our heads in the sand, we have to admit that footballers want to win things, they want to be part of an competitive outfit. Cesc goes away for the summer, plays well for Spain and wins Euro 2008, and then come back to a team which loses some of it's best players, and then does not even replace them, let alone add to it! Hell most top players would be disgruntled, yet Cesc has not said anything publically.

Wenger replaced Vieira with Cesc, and we just have not built a team around him yet.

Cesc absolutely should not be sold if we have any ambition at all. This is not a Henry, Vieira situation, where they were 28,29 years old and allowed to leave. Cesc is our best player, and we should be using him to attract other players to the club.

Whether Cesc wants to go or not, he should not be sold.If we sell Cesc, then we would have just pulled up our skirt to the rest of the world. And any notion that we are a serious football club, and not a selling club, would have just flown out the window.

Sometimes transfers are bigger than money, they show what sort of football club you are

Exactly if we sell Cesc, we may aswell change our name to Ajax V2.

 

[irishgunnerz]

For me no as well although your point is a valid one Biggus.

My fear would be that we'll be forced into a situation where we will have to sell him a la Hleb. I don't think we have seen the best of him so far this season but that seems to be because he plays deeper. At thye start of last year his form was amazing, a genuine constant goal threat

Denilson and Fab for me- in general, yesterday's game aside - dont work in a way that allows Fabregas the greatest freedom to influence the game and you have to wonder how he feels about that. He is an amazing player, and on form brings the team so much only a fool would sell him for any amount of money.

 

[banduan]

It wold be very tempting but the guy can get really fired up. This season the fire's gone but who's to say it can't be relit.

Probably the only player I've seen who's more composed when he's more fired up.

 

[Asterix]

I wouldn't sell him.

But, if he wanted to go we should get in excess of 30m for him. I still think Nasri could do a similar job in the middle, so we buy a new winger and carry on as usual.

Or we could revert to our old system of two stronger central midfielders and fast goal scorers on the flanks. The current system seemed set up purely to accommodate Cesc, so if he left Wenger would have to adapt the team structure and tactics to produce his fourth generation team.

 

[Alfonso]

Possibly.

Cesc is prob been my favourite Arsenal player over the past 4 years and I dont think I have ever rated an under 21 year old so highly, ever. Cesc is on the brink of being an Arsenal legend so I dont want him to leave, and before this season I loved everything about him.

However, unless he shows clear signs of improvement in terms of motivation and desire for the cause, which he hasnt so far this season then we may have to sell him. If his heart is not in it then we have to let him go, because at the moment he is representing Henry of 2006/2007 and we all know what happened at the end of that season.

He should get over Euro 2008 asap. But I wouldnt put it past Cesc having an outstanding second half of the season.