On a chilly October evening in 2003, Rotherham United arrived at Highbury for a third-round Carling Cup tie relieved that Patrick Vieira, Arsenal’s formidable captain, was unable to play because of injury.
In the Frenchman’s place Arsene Wenger had selected a midfielder from Catalonia. Francesc ”Cesc” Fabregas had arrived from Barcelona just four weeks earlier and at 16 years 177 days was a record-breaker — the Gunners’ youngest first-team player.
”I never expected to be in the side so early. It was a great experience because I was only 16 and I would not have had the opportunity to play in the first team for Barcelona,” he said.
Four short years later, Fabregas’s role at the club is about to be transformed. Thierry Henry this week joined the midfielder’s former club for £16-million. This, though, might not be the crisis it appears. Henry at 30 will hardly improve and, as there are doubts over an injury that may require surgery, it seems this may actually be the perfect time for Arsenal to bid farewell to their record goal scorer.
What the Gunners can certainly not afford, though, is for Fabregas to follow, a possibility that cannot be discounted following comments he made earlier this month.
”I think that Barca must seem like a very hard club to say no to once, never mind twice,” he admitted. ”I’ve never hidden the fact that one day I’d love to go back and play for Barca; it’s just that they have very good international players in [Andres] Iniesta and Xavi in my position right now.”
Although Fabregas then offered some grounds to think he will stay with his current club, his comments were linked to the manager’s future, which will hardly cause Arsenal fans to relax.
”Should Arsene Wenger leave then it’s about 90% sure that I’m going to leave too because I identify my status at this club so completely with his presence here. Without Wenger, Arsenal wouldn’t be the same club. If he left then this club would never again achieve what it has under him.
”When I signed that eight-year contract renewal I felt quite differently about Arsenal. I felt sure and secure about the club and the future; I felt I was at the ideal club for me.
”Now, however, the doubts have arrived when you see that our coach has not renewed a contract which ends at the end of next season and an important guy like [former vice-chairperson] David Dein has quit. These are obviously factors which can influence my future.”
Wenger indicated just how highly he regards Fabregas when signing the Spaniard for those further eight years, a deal that ties him to the club until 2014 and a virtually unheard-of extension. To convince Fabregas he should stay the distance is now the crucial challenge that faces Wenger who, along with the Arsenal fans, is desperate that the kid from the Nou Camp should lead the club into Life After Henry.
When Wenger added: ”I believe we have a few young players good enough to be Arsenal’s future,” he was surely thinking primarily of Fabregas, the star of the 2003 Under-17 World Cup, who claimed the Golden Shoe for the five goals that drove Spain to the final and was also named player of the tournament.
For Arsenal, the future has suddenly, rather sharply arrived. And, remarkably, so much depends on a player who turned 20 last month and has yet to start 90 Premiership games.
Gilberto, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 2002, is the early favourite to take over from Henry as captain. But he will be 31 in October and, even if he does take the armband, it is the little playmaker who will be the de facto leader.
Next season is crucial for Arsenal and Wenger. Despite reaching the 2006 Champions League final, the club have struggled to progress since Vieira’s departure the year before.
The first-choice side Wenger will select to face Fulham on 11 August, on the opening day of the new Premier League season should include Fabregas, Emmanuel Eboue, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie, a core that is highly talented, but still young and relatively inexperienced.
Fabregas may be the most junior in years but, having already played in that Champions League final and for Spain in last summer’s World Cup, he is battle-hardened and ready to take on the responsibility. So, would he fancy the job of skipper?
”I can see myself doing what they ask me, leadership included,” he says. ”To do that you need to be mentally strong. Up till now things are going quite well for me in that respect.”
This was his response when asked if he was ready to lead Spain. That the question arose despite the fact that he has played only 16 times for the national side indicates just how rapid his rise has been and how he is now valued.
Here is Fabregas’s answer when asked whether the job would be too much for one so young: ”It’s still a long road for me, but it’s fine.”
With Henry’s departure, and the loss in April of Dein, Wenger’s chief ally on the board, it is also going to be a long and challenging road for Arsenal and their manager, but he may be secretly pleased to have received much-needed funds for Henry, a player who managed only 17 league appearances for Arsenal last season after pelvic and stomach injuries.
Wenger, like all the best managers, has a knack for off-loading pivotal players when he believes they have offered their best. Vieira was allowed to leave in 2005, a year after leading Arsenal’s Invincibles through their unbeaten Premiership season and, as with Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to allow Ruud van Nistelrooy to leave for Spain last summer, there have been rumblings about Henry’s dominant ego not always being the best example for younger players.
Henry is now gone. Wenger, for this season at least, will be hoping that the future is Fab. If Wenger signs a new contract then that desire will extend to backing the midfielder to lead the club over the next decade. — Â