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After the hoax involving Manchester United last year, Chelsea were supposed to be the destination of the rumours this time. No Arsenal fan was going to be worried about that, confident that their dear ol’ boy Cesc would never sign for Chelsea.
So expectedly, Arsenal fans are in shock as a result of what you can see above. The shirts, I presume, are already being burnt, and the name ‘Cesc Fabregas’ has been transferred from the list of Arsenal’s ‘greatest players’ to, you know, the list of just ‘another ex-Arsenal player’. It’s one thing signing for the rival of a club which loved him so much, but when he has said something as serious as what you are about to read, ithe anger is taken to a whole new level.
“If I ever wear a Chelsea shirt, you have permission to kill me.” – Cesc Fabregas, 2010
This has been the buzz lately, and it‘s being taken quite seriously. Arsenal fan Piers Morgan is really furious, swearing at Cesc on Twitter, and then reminding him of the quote. The Gunners are thouroughly justified in their reaction, but before using the quote to fuel their hate further, they could do with a little reality check first.
Did he really say it? No. I’ve been through all the text combinations (mostly all possible strings involving ‘Fabregas’, ’Chelsea’, ‘shirt’, ‘kill’, ‘permission’, ‘2010’) I could think of on Google search, and none yielded a concrete news report quoting him that year. Comments on Chelsea and Arsenal fan sites (theshedend.com and arseblog.com, respectively) contain fans re-quoting the same, but no link to any report is mentioned anywhere. It looks like somebody made up the quote to draw some eyeballs and achieved their objective handsomely.
Fabregas signed for Barcelona in 2011, a year after Barcelona declared their interest. Why would he talk about Chelsea in 2010 then; Chelsea weren’t interested in him at the time! They were chasing Andrea Pirlo to play the role of the deep lying midfielder and Cesc, at that time, wasn’t one. Barcelona were just beginning the mind games to sign him, and he was repeatedly declaring his love for Arsenal and Barcelona, and talking about his dream to play for Barcelona to whosoever lent him an ear. So if he ever played in England again, it was to be for Arsenal, and nobody else.
Cesc never said what is being claimed. This is, yet again, a case of people wanting more hits, and fabricating quotes from years ago which nobody can trace. His Twitter account was created in September 2010, (https://twitter.com/cesc4official), which was after the window was shut, so that won’t do as evidence. Also, you can check out his official Facebook page as well (https://www.facebook.com/cescfabregas) and go through his posts from 2010.
If not on social media, let’s assume Fabregas said it in a random interview. Again, there is no genuine article or a report out there to back it up. Okay, maybe he said it in a match. Surely somebody else on the pitch – the opposing team, his teammates, or a cameraman, would have heard it and should have come out by now recollecting it!
In general, comments about joining a club in the future should be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, Samuel Eto’o supposedly said, “I’d rather retire and sell peanuts than play for a pathetic team like Chelsea” in 2005. Eden Hazard, on the other hand, apparently said, “With all respect to Chelsea, I’d rather join a club with history such as Liverpool or Arsenal” when he was at Lille.
But at the end of the day, they both signed for Chelsea.
Even if Fabregas did say it, who the heck cares? This is ‘silly season’ indeed, the time where one’s fantasies have ample place in the papers. We’ll go ga-ga over it for a few weeks, build it up intensely before a derby when it eventually arrives. Arsenal fans would make it a point to boo him, and soon let it fade into memory and move on with it.
Why should we go crazy about a comment which he never made, and gun him down for it? Arsenal did have a chance to sign him and they chose not to – that’s Wenger’s decision. Would Cesc have refused it? Definitely not! I do feel for the Arsenal fans; it’s never easy to see even one of your favorites play for a rival club, let alone three (as a Chelsea fan, I still regret them selling Juan Mata). But at this moment, if I were a Gunner, I’d direct some of my frustration towards Wenger.
To conclude, to the best of my searching skill, there is no evidence of Cesc ever having said “If I ever wear a Chelsea shirt, you have permission to kill me”. Oh, and by the way, to all those writing and spreading this quote out there, could you please be a bit more specific – on which day and which month of 2010 he said it?
Whoever finds an authentic report on this story, is welcome to share it in the comments.
Let the hate mail begin!
