Cesc Fabregas has revealed intricate details for his decision to leave Arsenal for Barcelona despite captaining the London side.
Cesc Fabregas has revealed intricate details for his decision to leave Arsenal for Barcelona despite captaining the London side.
Fabregas joined Arsenal as a 15-year-old from Barcelona’s academy and went on to don the Gunners red jumper for more than 300 appearances.
The midfielder wore the armband under Arsene Wenger before opting to leave Emirates Stadium to join a then Pep Guardiola side.
The now 32-year-old, playing for Monaco since his departure from Chelsea, says that he decided to return to Barcelona for many reasons while also openly saying that Robin Van Persie and Samir Nasri were the only players that was “on his level”.
“I was the captain, I always felt so much pressure on myself,” Fabregas said as quoted by Arseblog. I had to lead this team to win something. I gave everything. Sometimes, I used to go home after we lost, and I used to cry.
“I used to suffer, I used to spend sleepless nights suffering. And then you lose a game, you’re in the bus like this, destroyed, and then you hear some players laughing, thinking about where they will be going out later. This was going on for a few years. We were playing beautiful football and I enjoyed that side of things, but I was putting pressure on myself to lead, to do everything and at one point I felt kind of lonely.
“Especially in the last two or three years, I felt Robin and Samir were the only players – it’s not an arrogant thing to say, it’s how I felt at that time – were the players who were at my level mentally and technically. Many things came in my head, I have to admit I was a bit empty, I was drained mentally, physically, in my soul knowing I’m giving everything, knowing a few signings the club could have made but didn’t happen.
“Seeing some behaviours from certain players or something like this made me feel I wanted to check something else. If it was not because of that, I would not have left Arsenal at that time.”
