LoveCity said:
Everyone's productivity is good at Barca, because even when they have an average season they score 100 goals. Ibra had good stats for Barca too, but was far from a glowing success. Indeed, if Fabregas had been so good, why are Barcelona so desperate to sell a player in his prime years after going to such lengths to sign him back? Especially with Xavi pretty much finished, too. He's had his moments in the last 3 years for sure, but by and large has been a disappointment. Even under Pep.
He is what I consider to be a class stats padder, or has been recently. He'll help bury relegation fodder then do absolutely squat in El Clasico or against Atletico. If you look at him on paper, he looks amazing. If you watch him every week all season, he flatters to deceive. I watch every Barca/Real game, it's been a habit of mine in the last few years, and Fabregas has been really, really average. He was subbed off in 7 of Barcelona's 8 biggest games this season after doing nothing. There was all the talk of his "Barcelona DNA", but he has just as much "Arsenal DNA" with a weak big match mentality. People criticise Nasri for this, but at least Nasri stepped up in a few big games. Fabregas didn't in even one this season, he was a passenger (another reason I struggle to see Chelsea signing him, Mourinho wants everyone alive for 90 minutes).
On no level has can I see how he has been better than Yaya Toure recently. Last season, Yaya Toure was the perfect example of a great Premier League footballer. Not only that, Yaya has years of chemistry and experience in this City team now and functions as the heartbeat. Everything goes through him, he's the best passer of the ball in the Premier League, and to replace him without planning would sort of upset the balance and fluency this team has built.
The grass isn't always greener...
I'd have Koke over Fabregas all day long. A stunning player not living on reputation and strongly rumoured to be the midfielder Barca most want this summer. To me, this news we don't want Fabregas, if true, is like music to my ears. It'd be something of a Torres signing, IMO, buying more on reputation than performance, when there are young, hungry players out there (like Koke or Pogba) who would be more exciting signings.
Again, for me that is far too one sided an analysis. I also watch a hell of a lot of Barcelona and have done for years. I've seen Fabregas be Barca's best player on countless occasions and seen him come off the bench to change the dynamic of a match for them on countless occasions. You say he did nothing in the "big" games for Barca. In La Liga there's only two, Athletico and Real - and in the season just gone both teams were much better
teams than Barca. So his lack of impact on those games is a reflection of the lack of impact their whole team had.
You say that he's a stats padder, but those stats are important. When you're averaging double figures for assists and goals almost throughout your entire career I'm not sure how this can be dismissed in the manner in which you seem to be doing. I can't think of many players who across two of the top leagues in the world, over a decade of football, have consistently produced numbers like that from midfield. Certainly Silva, Toure, Nasri, and co don't come close to having numbers like that.
I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on most of this as for me last season was an anomaly for Toure. He's never ever produced a goals/assists ratio like that previous to last season whereas Fabregas has been doing it every season as I say for most of his career.
Moving forward the reality is also that at 31 and being unsettled, Toure isn't someone we can rely on over the long term. One of the biggest mistakes both Chelsea and United have made in the last five years is allowing their better players to get to the top of the hill and then begin their decline before moving to replace them and evolve the squad. We can't end up in a situation where we wait until the decline in Toure is obvious before moving to bring in another player.
On Koke ... I agree wholeheartedly that he's a truly top player. In the thread started a while back asking who should replace Yaya, he was the name I posted. However Athletico will sell him for stupid stupid money, and even that will not be until he wants the move, which from what I can see of him won't be for a year or two yet.
If it turns out we're not in for Fabregas, and intend to go into the season with a midfield of Toure/Fernandinho/Fernando/Garcia, then I for one think we'll be as far off winning the CL as we were in the season just gone. Those four players do not possess the characteristics required IMO to play the way Pellegrini wants against top opposition like Madrid/Bayern and win the CL.
