Why are you so confident that Cesc Fábregas will stay?
I am confident because I hope he will see that there will be no greater achievement for him in his life than to lead this team to success and that it will not be the right period for him to leave the club.
In one breath, you say "confident" but in the next, you say "hope". There seem to be a few grey areas ...
I think Cesc has always been torn between his love for Arsenal that I feel is really genuine and, as well and what you can understand, the desire to play for the biggest team, at the moment, in the world. I think both exist in his head.
Have you had a meeting with him since his return for pre-season last week to discuss where his head and his heart are leaning?
Yes. I cannot speak about the meeting but he knows that I want him to stay.
He is under contract until 2015 so, technically, he cannot force his way out?
No, but you can only be in if you are completely in. He is the leader of the team. He has to be completely focused and convinced that he wants to stay.
If he is not completely focused, Arsenal would presumably still not let him go unless they got what they felt was the right price for him?
Yes. But we want to keep him and for us, it's not a question of money. We are not there to make the money. We are there to keep our best players. We have managed the club well to be in a position to say "No". For any money. We have the potential to do that because we are in a healthy financial situation. But, on the other hand, you need as well the player wanting to be with you.
That's clearly the issue, isn't it? You have to be convinced that Cesc, in his heart, wants to stay, 100% ...
I am convinced, but I want him to be convinced.
Surely, he can give his best on the pitch only if he is 100% committed?
Some people questioned his last season but I never question his commitment. This guy is a real winner and if he did not have the expected season, it was down to injuries. He played in some games where he was not right completely but he wanted to play, to win.
You seem to be in a similar situation with Samir Nasri?
No. Samir's situation is clear for me.
He definitely stays, come what may?
He stays.
So if a club comes in with a big offer, knowing that he's in the final year of his contract, you will say, "You're staying..."
I've just told you that we are in a position where we can say "No".
And you will, in the case of Samir?
We will.
You think that it is worth more to have Samir for one more season and risk losing him on a Bosman free next summer than to cash in now?
Yes.
That could be construed as a £20m gamble?
[Smiling.] You are the same people who reproach me for not spending money and now you reproach me for wanting to spend it! It is in the interests of the club. Fábregas is in no man's land ... Imagine the worst situation, that we lose Fábregas and Nasri; you cannot convince people that you are ambitious after that. And even if you lose Nasri, to find the same quality player, you have to spend again the same amount of money because you cannot say you lose the player and you do not replace him. And the other clubs who come to take him have scouts all over the world as well but if they come to us for our player ...
You clearly don't want to sell Cesc but it's been like a feeding frenzy with the Catalans saying, officially and unofficially, that they will get him for this amount and that they will get him. Is there a message that you want to send to them, once and for all?
Ha ha. You know what they do. I can only speak for ourselves. For us, it's not a question of money. It's a question of desire. We want Cesc to be with us but we want him as well to be happy with us. I have heard people say that we do not want to keep Cesc. We are desperate to keep Cesc. And we will fight for everything because you do not educate a player for eight years as we have done only to want him to go once he is at an age to deliver. We want to keep the team together.
The boldest official statement from Barcelona this summer came from the president Sandro Rosell when he said that Cesc was worth less now than what he bid for him last summer [£40m]?
That is disrespectful to Cesc. I rate Cesc so highly that for me, he is top, top, world class. He is certainly in the top five midfield players in the world.
In summary, if Cesc is not happy, you would let him go?
I want him to be happy and to stay.
But if he said he was unhappy...?
That's the only way, he could get out. I don't think he's unhappy but he wants to go back to Barcelona. If we wanted to make a money situation and wanted to sell the player, we put him on the market and we ask "Who gives more?" But that would not be the conversation. For us, it's not a question of money. It is a question of Cesc wanting to be with us. And I think he is torn because he loves the club deeply. We will fight until the last second to keep him.
How important is it that you emerge from the transfer window with a bigger and stronger squad
The message that we give out is important. For example, you see about Fábregas leaving, Nasri leaving ... if you give that message out, you cannot pretend you are a big club. Because a big club, first of all, holds on to its big players and gives a message out to all the other big clubs that they cannot come in and take away from you.
You have big games at the start of the season before the window closes, including the Champions League qualifiers...
I have a basic team in my head that can start the season and it is important as well to settle psychologically and that the players who are here focus on the season and not the transfer market. The players who are here will ask "Will he go, will he go?" That is not the way to prepare for the season.
Would a major signing convince the players who are ambivalent about staying?
What is very difficult for us is that as long as you do not know that this group stays together, you cannot strengthen the team because you think, "If he goes, I have to do what?" I also cannot really tell you [a transfer target], I want you because if he stays, you cannot come in. So you are in no man's land and that is terrible. That is why the transfer period basically should stop when the training starts.
So you need Fábregas to give you a quick answer, one by this week?
We have to stop at some stage. Cesc now comes back to training in London from a muscle injury so I hope we can close that very quickly. In our favour.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote