Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin has publicly apologised to Cesc Fabregas after he questioned the midfielder's loyalty towards former manager Jose Mourinho. The 52-year-old had implied on a talk show last week that Fabregas was the player who said that he would ‘rather lose than win’ for the Portuguese tactician.
Reportedly, the Spanish midfielder decided to take legal action against Nevin a couple of days back and even instructed his lawyers to send a legal notice to the ex-Chelsea winger regarding a defamation case. The comments which got Nevin in trouble were made after the issue of an unnamed player who allegedly refused to win for Mourinho was raised in a talk show, to which he said, “Yeah, that was Cesc Fàbregas, wasn’t it?”
However, Nevin, who played almost 200 matches for Chelsea apologised to the ex-Barcelona player saying that he did not mean to single out the midfielder, but was asking a question instead. He cleared the air on the matter through his weekly column on Chelsea FC’s official website and stated that Fabregas was “unfairly targeted”.
“At the risk of being self-indulgent I would like to clarify a story that emerged, not for my sake but for Cesc Fàbregas who was unfairly targeted,” he wrote in his weekly column.
“When a story appeared in one of the newspapers it was reported as if I was deliberately outing Cesc. Now whether it was mischievous on the newspaper's part for deliberately misunderstanding me or whether I was not clear enough in what I was saying and the fault was thus partially mine, it doesn't matter.”
“In short, I did not mean to have a go at Cesc in any way at all; I was merely asking a question.”
Comment made in the heat of the moment
He also recalled the incident on the show which led to such controversy, as he pointed out that the reporter who broke the news made it perfectly clear that it might be something which was uttered in the spur of a moment and this doesn’t mean that the player would have deliberately performed badly.
“During an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme I asked, in passing while talking about some other recent happenings at the club, if the player who said the phrase six weeks ago: ‘I would rather lose than play for José,’ had been outed in the press as Cesc?”
“I absolutely wasn’t having a go at Cesc but asking the question, as the reporter I was talking to was the one who originally broke that story. Basically I thought this had been the press line in the following days back then.”
“Cesc denied it all at the time of course (honestly as it turns out!) and odd though it may sound I couldn’t have cared less anyway.”
“The reason I wasn’t that bothered was because the BBC reporter (a man I like and admire I may add) had made it perfectly clear that it was something said in the heat of the moment, in a fit of anger and it certainly did not mean that player wasn’t going to try for the team really.”
Now that the former Chelsea player has cleared the air, Fabregas might be a bit forgiving and may eschew legal action. The Chelsea fans may not reciprocate the same forgiveness to Fabregas, but the midfielder would do well to remember that fans have short memories – a couple of sterling perfomances will have them singing his name again.
