Del Bosque, Cesc, what is going on?



By Walter Broeckx

Vicente del Bosque is the name of the manager of the Spanish national team and he just maybe the most important player in the saga of where Cesc will be next season or even next seasons.

Del Bosque is what we could call a Real Madrid man. He played there the main part of his career and after he stopped playing he became first a youth coach and later on he even became a rather successful coach of the first team. Until president Perez found that he didn’t have enough charisma to lead the galacticos.

But from his past it is normal that Del Bosque keeps a soft spot for Real Madrid in his heart. When you spend about 20 years of your career somewhere you keep that in your heart. It’s in his DNA, Xavi would say.

And so it is interesting to see that now Del Bosque is in charge of the Spanish national team and in this world cup he is going the Barcelona way. His 3 most important midfield players are the players that are mostly picked by Guardiola at Barcelona: Xavi, Iniesta and Pique.

And this is giving a signal to Cesc of what to expect when he should leave for Barcelona. I’m not saying Cesc is not as good as those players but the fact is that those 3 players are well established in the Barcelona team and if they are fit, they will be on the field. Why would Guardiola put one of them out of the team for the moment? Together with Messi they form a great midfield partnership and can destroy any team on the day. So it would be fair to think that even Cesc would struggle to get in the team.

And if we know one thing from Cesc is that he hates it on the bench. He always wants to play. Sitting on the bench is the worst thing you can do with Cesc. It has been said by many players and coaches that Cesc would play every day if needed, he just loves it so much. And now he is sitting on the bench when Spain plays and even when they were struggling to create an opening against Switzerland Del Bosque kept Cesc on the bench. I think Cesc was dying on that bench over there and was frustrated not been given a chance. And even when Iniesta had to come off, he still didn’t get a chance.

So if Cesc wants to go to Barcelona he will realise by now on that far from being the first player to put on the team sheet he will be somewhere 4th or 5th choice in midfield. He will play his games whenever Xavi or Iniesta need a little break and then he will go back to the bench. He will come on in the last 10 minutes when the game is won by Barcelona and Xavi or Iniesta are called off the field after a standing ovation.

That will be his role in Barcelona for now. And Del Bosque is giving this message to Cesc for the moment in South Africa. He only was brought in to replace Xavi and that is what he will be at Barcelona for as long as Xavi is delivering : a backup player.

So the lesson being taught by Del Bosque could have Cesc thinking what to do. Stay at Arsenal and be the most important player in the team or go to Barcelona and be a squad player for the moment. Given the way Cesc is feeling about wanting to play at all time the experience of sitting on the bench could mean a lot to his chances of staying another few years in the Emirates.

But could it be that Del Bosque is doing this deliberately? Is he putting Cesc on the bench because of his Real Madrid past? Because if Cesc were to go to Barcelona to sit on the bench it would mean that whatever happens to Xavi or Iniesta they have a player on the bench that is as strong as they are or even better. To have a player like Cesc on the bench would be the biggest luxury for any team. And if Cesc were to stay at Arsenal this would mean that Barcelona hasn’t got a replacement of the same quality as Xavi or Iniesta.

And so it would weaken Barcelona if Cesc were to stay in London and thus help Real Madrid. Remember, Real Madrid being the team Del Bosque spent most of his career with.

And let us imagine for one second that Perez, the president of Real Madrid would be thinking of getting Cesc to Real Madrid. Well I’m rather sure it will have crossed his mind on a few occasions. Because this would be the biggest insult that he could give the old enemy Barcelona.

Imagine Cesc playing for Real Madrid. The player that Barcelona couldn’t hold on to when he was young and the player that the Real Madrid fans use when they want to taunt the Catalans. That player playing for Real Madrid would be one of the biggest achievements for the team from the Spanish capital.

Never going to happen? I’m not so sure you know. Remember that almost all the captains or best players from Barcelona ended up in Madrid after a while. Remember Shuster, remember Ronaldo, remember Figo,… at some stage they would have told you were crazy if you would have said that they would go to Real Madrid some day but they went there. Money can make a man do strange things (or a woman off course) and suppose Real Madrid offer him a certain starting place in the team… do you think Cesc wouldn’t consider it for a moment? He can be 100% Catalan but when money talks AND he is guaranteed a starting place on the field…..I wouldn’t bet against it.

Some could argue that Del Bosque would not risk his own career by putting Cesc on the bench to do such a thing.  But in fact Del Bosque doesn’t risk anything. We, as Arsenal fans, would put Cesc on the field but Del Bosque can point at the fact that he is playing a midfield that is made out of the midfield of Barcelona the best club team in the last seasons. Why would he risk interfering with the understanding those players have build in the last seasons. He doesn’t have to risk anything because no one will blame him for playing Xavi, Iniesta and Pique.

Anyhow Del Bosque is not doing a bad job by putting Cesc on the bench if you ask me. It will keep him free from injury, he can rest a bit and he can think about his place in Arsenal and his possible place on the bench in Barcelona. And if he still wants to go and if he would put in a transfer request I think it would be fair for Arsenal to tell Cesc that if he wants to go he will be sold to the highest bid and this could maybe open the door for Real Madrid if they still can get a loan somewhere.

For those who say that Cesc will not be playing with his heart in the Emirates I can only say that the football animal Cesc is, he will be playing with his heart in whatever team he will be playing. He just loves the game too much to just be a passenger in a team. In Dutch we use the expression for a football player full of passion for the game a ‘football animal’ and Cesc is one of them.

So I think Cesc will be considering his chances and will hold on to his Arsenal shirt for a while. And maybe Del Bosque is not thinking about this at all but he still is doing a great job then for us so maybe we could whisper a silent: Thank you, Vicente, muchas gracias.

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36 Replies to “Del Bosque, Cesc, what is going on?”

  1. Everybody seems to ignore the following:
    Xavi is 30.
    If Barca take him in, it’s likely Xavi will be basically tutoring Fabregas until he retires.
    And that’s something Fabregas might be keen on.
    Having Xavi to remind him the Bara way for a year or two until Fab is fully fit to become Captain…

  2. Everybody seems to ignore the following:
    Xavi is 30.
    If Barca take him in, it’s likely Xavi will be basically tutoring Fabregas until he retires.
    And that’s something Fabregas might be keen on.
    Having Xavi to remind him the Barca way for a year or two until Fab is fully fit to become Captain…

  3. Nice post Walt, but I think you meant Sergio Busquets in mid field as Pique is a defender

  4. And so it is interesting to see that now Del Bosque is in charge of the Spanish national team and in this world cup he is going the Barcelona way. His 3 most important midfield players are the players that are mostly picked by Guardiola at Barcelona: Xavi, Iniesta and Pique.
    ——————————————————–
    Did you mean Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets………?

  5. I could not even read the whole of this, Pique midfield??
    He plays centre half alongside Puyol. Perhaps you mean Busquets

    Anyway there is plenty of room for Cesc at Barca. It all depends on how they line up. Barca usually play a 4-3-3 and i expect it will remain that way with Cesc playing behind the fron 2 of Villa and Messi or he could drop[ into Iniesta or Xavi’s role to allow more firepower up front Ibrahomivic, Krkic or may be Torres, who knows. One thing is for sure Cesc will be returning to Barca, whether it be this summer or after an enforced season with all the repercussions that brings at Arsenal. Let him return now, so that this does not get embarrassing and messy (not messi) for all parties

  6. Well its a very anti-barca way of looking at things. But one thing is for sure, that is barca dont desperately need fabregas right now. But it will be a totally different story once xavi becomes old. I think in 2 years time, xavi would be less important than fabregas and by that time fabregas will be in his peak. We can still get atleast £45 million from fabregas after 2-3 years. And that is what maybe Wenger is thinking. Whatever the situation, one sad truth is that we’ll have to part ways with fabregas one day. I’ll give maximum of 2 years. After that it would unrealistic or unprofitable to keep him. I dont think he’s goin to extend his contract any further now. Even if arsenal wins trophies, it would be very hard to keep him once he comes to know that barca are desperately after him. Its his home at barca and we have to respect it. But one thing we always have to think about is the team after fabregas leaves. We need to fill his position with an equally talented player, a player having the same leadership skills. But whoever the new player is, we should all know how important fabregas has been. We have been the weakest since last few years and still under his leadership achieved things that no other club in our position could have achieved. Arsenal Rocks!!!

  7. Tutoring from Xavi? Barcelona way? Didn’t he get that as part of their youth team? Or during internationals? Not enough motivation for a grown man to sit on the bench. You have to come into your own some day.

    As for Del Bosque, I don’t think he’d be doing Madrid any such costly favors after the way they cast their most successful manager aside. I just think Cesc is looked at differently in Spain. The fact that he badly wants to prove himself there is bad for us. The fact that he Isn’t going to get much of a chance to do so is the good news.

    It must make the Spanish feel good to say the best midfielder in the English league is a peripheral figure in the Spanish set-up, where the ‘boys’ Busquets, Iniesta and company, take their rightful place.

  8. Hey Walter the spanish manager is doing us a big favour, I cant see Cesc being happy playing 20 games a season, being totally fit and just watching from the bench and getting 10 minutes here.

    If I was AW I would make a bold move, I would say to barca you can loan him for ^ months with a view to buying for say £45 million and sell on clauses. I guarantee 6 months at barca on the bench would do cesc head in and then there would be no thought of Barca for a long time.

    If Aw just says no, Cesc can romanticize about how wonderful barca are and that he would break through and going doing this route it would only be a matter of time before Barca got their man and IMO barca will end up getting him a lot cheaper the more his contract runs down, I couldnt see this tactical move backfiring and then when cesc comes back from his loan spell at barca he would be fired up and totally committed to arsenal.It would give Rambo and jack the opportunity to express themselves.I think this way everyone saves face,cesc has the option of coming back, barca stop hounding us and cesc can see the grass is not greener

    If I was cesc and his father I would ask myself, why did they let me go in the first place? It is because they thought you were not going to make it, I would argue that Cesc has arsenal DNA more than barca, Cesc is on the verge of becoming world class the season he had considering hewas injured a fair amount shows that he is going to be in the mold of a zidane a player able to dominate midfield, not through a viera type performance, but by technical ability. I used to love watching Zee Zu do his thing and cesc is close to replicating that

  9. “Its his home at barca and we have to respect it”

    Fabregas is an Arsenal Football Club player until 2014 according to his contract, and he has to respect that. its not the other way around.

  10. Pique, Busquet, whatever they are all Spanish…..

    I must say I don’t know what people had put in my cola when I wrote this but it must have been something I was not used to. To punish myself I will be looking at a video of Barcelona- Arsenal to remember the difference between those 2 players.

    In all fairness: What a mistake to make.

  11. I think Cesc should wait at least another season before joining Barca. We all don’t want to see him go but it’s going to happen one day… After all – he is spanish! & of course he would want to play at his boy-hood club.
    The question is – can Arsenal as a club really move on untill we sell him? Should we just get it over with now & start the new building process?

    I would really hope that when he does go we would be in the market for a player with the same level of excellence. My choice would be Sneijder. Not replacing him with someone on the same level of quality would be unforgivable! …We’ve seen the consequences of not replacing quality with quality .. i,e, the departures of Pires, Big Pat & Henry to name a few.

  12. Why dont you guys see that this could be a bad thing for us too.. By making cesc sit on the bench the spanish football board and bosque could be hinting cesc that if he needs to be in the spanish team he better move to spain..The rest of the players all ply their trade there and unless cesc moves to spain they are not gonna bother playing him even if he is better than xavi..couldnt this factor make cesc feel like he should move to spain rather than stay in england..
    that being said i hope im false and cesc stays at the emirates..

  13. Del Bosque puts on Cesc on the bench because he prefers to play Primera Liga based players. He will do so until a disaster (like losing to Switzerland) strikes.

  14. i agree with everything… cesc on the bench is only good for Arsenal

    BUT

    he wont go Real… would you go tottenham? didnt think so

  15. They are probably giving him a bit of the cold shoulder.

    The native playing sons get the hot roast.

    Logically Cesc should be playing behind Villa…..(Torres is not fit)…and he would probably score a few goals there, and then his price would go up.

    That would be doing us a favour.

    My feeling is that Del Boy is not playing him to keep his price down.

  16. A lot depends on what Cesc’s intentions are. If he is committed to moving to Barca, then Del Boy and the Spanish Football Mafia wouldn’t be playing any psychological games with him.

    If he is not hell-bent on returning, then its a different story.

    Still, its a great shame that one of the World’s top 5 ‘Galacticos’ is not getting his run out.

  17. I dunno Wenger is a senile cunt, now Fabregas is an ungrateful tosser…

    I’m sick of this bullshit.

    He expressed a desire to leave and Wenger has said no – no great crime as far as I can tell. Let’s see what happens from here before we start viciously attacking our own players shall we.

  18. I am so glad Theo didnt make it to the world cup because they would have made a scapegoat of him, same goes for Nasri. Cesc is rested aswell, chamkh not playing, clichy,joe cole?

    if we did try to sign Robert Green I wonder what his value is now or Loris?

    It looks like our players are coming back fresh

  19. Once again I am forced to ask for the quote in which Cesc states he is ready to leave Arsenal for Barca, or anything else to that effect. As far as I can tell its only the words of Guilleme Balague (a tabloid journo) being accepted as gospel truth, and it annoys the hell out of me that so many Arsenal fans refuse to question things before kissing Cesc goodbye. It shows how little belief we have in our club and again I struggle to understand why this is.

    Please tell me why he would leave his future in the hands of the one person who least wants him to leave (Arsene) if he was so hell-bent on getting out.

    I will state my belief here and now: Cesc is not going anywhere. Not now, not in one year, and not anytime in the near future. I say this because as far as I know he has not said he wants to go. I will choose to believe in our player over the words of a hack (or the Barcelona Corps) anyday.

    I beg Arsenal fans to have a little mental fortitude. Its especially at times like these that we need it.

  20. well if he goes to barca i think he goes to win trophies and play with mates. He knows he will be squad player for the next 2-3 years but he will be happy with that aslong as he gets the trophies he craves. Obviousley the man has not made many friends in England for his last 7 years, as one of the reasons peple reckon he will go home is to be closer to his friends.

  21. reasons not to Go.

    Real madrid and mourhino revolution, so no trophies?

    Bench warming for 3 years?

    Potentially ruining your career ( last place I would hate to see cesc end up at is man city)

    Reasons to stay, too many cesc !!!

  22. I think xavi has jsut signed a new contact until 2015 so cesc wmight have to wait a while to takeover or the word is that iniesta and him will alternate between playing further forward and central midfield.

  23. I don’t know why some fans are turning on Cesc. He has always stated his love for Barca and I always thought he would leave in 1-2 years from now. I even thought there might be a tacit understanding between the clubs. Ramsey the understudy with a target of playing 20 games this year by Wenger ensuring we had a readymade (improved) homegrown replacement.

    Cesc would of known the score too, that’s why I was suprised by this summer’s debarcle unless he was told you move this summer or never. Surely playing at the level he has and being an important player at a big club as well as being his own man, should mean that he would not need to be Xavi’s understudy.

    If Del Bosque only picks Spain based players then why does Torres play. Like Walters points out Del boy has done us a favour as it probably gave Fab time to think about whether he can be a stagnating bench warming sub for 2 years, when he’s struggling to do it for a few weeks. Also if Barca don’t accomodate play for Ibra, why would they change formation for Cesc whom they value less?

    I am hoping that fans don’t give Cesc a hard time (Eboue style)as he will be wearing an Arsenal shirt in few weeks time and play our exciting brand of football with our improved squad. Like those who were unjustly overlooked for their national squads (except Almunia) and those who didn’t have great experiences, Cesc will come back psychologically motivated to succeed.

  24. Seeing how dominant Barca has been in the last few years in the spanish league, the international side is a reflection of this. The core players are all from Barca. Cesc should open his eyes and realise they WONT choose him over Iniesta or Xavi. The Cesc SAGA has been very disconcerting (not just about Cesc leaving). Our best player wont get in their starting line-up. WHY ISNT OUR TEAM STRONG ENOUGH? This is a big reason why we havent won anything in so many years. Go gunners!

  25. Gooner Gal no one is going to boo Cesc, I think we will kill him with kindness to get him to stay and besides I think alot of arsenal fans felt abit ashamed about booing Eboue.

    Booing is strictly reserved for Ade and Cashley

    The main point I suppose we can all agree on is that Barca dont need Cesc, they are just annoyed that they let a really good player go for nothing. I can understand why they bought David villa, I can honestly see cesc getting really frustrated at Barca because the fans wont love him like they do at arsenal, he would just be a squad player and like I have mentioned before in Barcas eyes

    Cesc is to Xavi want Rambo is to cesc.

    What Annoys me about Barca they just think they have the right to pay alot less, they screwed us with Henry and Hleb and I think on the open market Cesc would go for £60b Million, But they have tapped him up and got him to say ” I only want to go to Barca” and I think barca has no honour they have every man and his dog talking about cesc and I started to look at barca in a different way when they turned on the water sprinklers on inter milan because they lost, they are pathetic.

    I am praying that Tony and Walter have it right and that barca severely struggle in the future.Barca have turned me into a Real Madrid Fan

  26. good post walter, aside from the few silly mistakes, which i could give less of a shit about

    the articles heart is in a great place, the right place

    i continue to hope cesc stays for his career. i don’t think he’ll ever be able to put arsenal out of his mind, and i believe (and of course wish) the squad wenger builds this summer will convince him to stay for at least a couple years

    just not really too sure barcelona is actually the biggest threat

  27. Money can make a man do strange things (or a woman off course)

    Is that money can make a woman do strange things OR a woman can make make a man do strange things? 🙂

  28. @Shard

    Or a man can do a strange womon? The dangling participle strikes! 😉

  29. Gooner80 I hope your right because I have started hearing alot of foul language and abuse directed at Cesc already. A few people saying we should get shot of him now and move on.

    I agree Barca fans don’t appear to love him like the squad players do. They seem to want other areas of the team strenghtened. If there was a lack of money and it went only to get Cesc – I would understand Barca fans being angry about him being bought.

    In a couple of years Cesc will be peaking and definately worth £60m. Barca will have to try to offer us half their team to pay for him. I see Barca in a different light now, I was suprised by the sprinklers incident, which was brushed off lightly by the media and UEFA – I am not sure another club would of been treated the same. Barca can’t take the moral high ground on anything anymore and have burned bridges with Arsenal.

    I don’t think I will ever be a RM fan especially with their club ethos, football style they will be playing next season and managers attitude. But I will be watching as Barca go into self destruction, sack Pep and lure someone like Capello into post.

    P.S Lady Gooner, I think Jonny’s generally alright and was making a point about other’s comments.

  30. Yes Gooner Gal, I also have heard people calling for Cesc to go as his heart is not here anymore and mostly people who believe every word the media spreads. 95% lies and 5% truth is how I look at what the media say, but some realy believe them.

    I’m also affraid that some people might boo him, like they did with Adebayor, and that they get the same result: a player that really wants to go and doesn’t feel comfortable anymore. Even though I could understand the Adebayor thing a little bit but I never could understand it at the start of the season. I was there when the Emirates cup was played against Real Madrid and heard the boo’s and the whistling going on.
    I know he could have responded with even trying harder and he would have won them over maybe, but he reacted as the big man who was misunderstood and didn’t work like the year before and was lost for Arsenal.

    I really hope this will not happen to Cesc. I think Cesc would try harder to prove them wrong, but you knever know what happens inside the head.

    I can not be there this year at the Emirates cup, my brother and some friends from Flanders will be and I hope they will sing his name untill we have no voice left.

  31. why do people think Cesc IF he leaves will be on the bench for barca thats crap they put iniesta on the left and put cesc in the middle with both xavi and biscuits!! all this xavi taking him under his wing like hello cesc is a far better player it annoys me that people say xavis better,where was he at cescs age?? anyway Cescs staying put!!

  32. I may make criticism of Aw and a few players before the season but when the season starts that would be the most stupid thing, to boo our best player, that is crazy.

    Cesc is a different kettle of fish to ade, cesc ia a passionate guy and booing him just plays into Barcas hands.

    cesc even said he gets more love from arsenal than he does at home, booing players does no good

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