Cesc Buying Out His Contract And Will The Real Number 10 Please Stand Up.

With the ‘Cesc to Barca’ story dragging out and becoming as boring and ridiculous as the ‘who killed Archie’ storyline in Eastenders, rumours have now circulated that Cesc may seek to buy out his contract in order to make his dream move. Apparently Cesc has become stressed by the lack of progression. Naughty Sir Wenger won’t let his hottest property join those darling angels from Barca, for nothing more than a packet of peanuts and a curly wurly and is looking to do a ‘Hleb’ or a ‘Webster’ if we want to use the correct terminology.

This would mean Cesc coughing up roughly in the region of £30 mil, which coincidently is the same as what the Stains value him at. In theory, Barca give Cesc the £30 mil, he in turn gives it to us and everyone’s a winner. In practice this is bullshit.

For a few reasons..

Firstly, I don’t think Cesc would do that to us, nor to Wenger. He may have Barca DNA but he’s not brought up that way, he was brought up the Arsenal way. The classy way. His recent comments suggest this;

“I will say only one thing – I have got massive respect for Arsene Wenger, Arsenal football club and the Arsenal fans. Even in my own house I have not felt as loved as I have at Arsenal. I had a long conversation with Arsene and it was the greatest [longest] conversation I have had with anyone in my life. I respect him, so, so much and I don’t want to say anything more. Wenger said to leave it in his hands and he will deal with whatever happens in the future. It is now all about Arsenal – it is not in my hands. Now I just wait: it is up to Arsenal. Right now all I am thinking about is the World Cup: everything else is the future and I am not going to say anything else.”

Which is basically translated into; I love Barca and I would love to join them, but Arsenal hold all the cards and I will do as I’m told as I have love for them also..

Secondly and more importantly (as loyalty is rarely seen in football to make the first point concrete) Article 17 of FIFA’s Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players is entitled “Consequences of Terminating a Contract Without Just Cause”, and is the fifth article of Chapter IV, “Maintenance of Contractual Stability between Professionals and Clubs”. It outlines the provisions which apply if a contract is terminated without just cause, and the requirement for the party in breach to pay compensation. Specifically, it states that any player who signed a contract before the age of 28 can buy himself out of the contract three years after the deal was signed. If he is 28 or older the time limit is shortened to two years.

Cesc signed an eight year deal in 2006, keeping him with us until 2014, which technically means he falls under the Hleb Webster Clause. Or so we thought, until a club atatement blew Barca out of the water with this classy statement.

“Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is under contract with the Club until the summer of 2015. He is a highly-valued member of the team and part of our future plans. We have followed recent speculation linking Cesc with a move away from the Club but as there has never been any official approach for him, only two informal exchanges, in which we made it abundantly clear that we have no interest in transferring Cesc, we have refrained from publicly passing comment. However, yesterday evening we received an offer from Barcelona for Cesc and in response, we immediately and resolutely told them once again that we have no intention of selling our captain. To be clear, we will not make any kind of counterproposal or enter into any discussion. Barcelona have publicly stated that they will respect our position and we expect that they will keep their word.”

 
Which is basically translated into; I don’t care if Cesc has the Barca badge tattooed on is arse, he’s an Arsenal player and £30 mil wouldn’t buy his right leg so get f*cked..

The key part of that statement for me is the fact it specifically said Cesc was contracted until 2015..Cesc signed an extension to his contract last summer which means he’s only one year into his current deal, not the four years everyone seems to think that puts him in the Hleb Webster category..

Wenger gets a lot of flack sometimes for giving his young players new deals every 18-24 months, we all want to know why we are giving players new deals when they are only two minutes into a 100 year contract but by doing this Sir Wenger is stopping them from getting past year three and getting picked off by the vultures for a bag of peanuts and a curly wurly.

Cesc isn’t going anyhere..Not for £30mil anyway!! We still hold all the cards, morally and legally..

Onto the next topic

I never understood why when Gallas signed he was given the number 10 shirt. It frustrates the hell out me when i see players like Gallas wearing 10 and Diaby wearing 2.. Whats all that about?? I always had the theory that Wenger didn’t want to put any pressure on any of his strikers by giving them the IceMans old number, so he gave it to a defender. Call me old fashioned if you like, but its like a pet hate that defenders wear attackers jerseys and attackers wear defenders.

With Gallas technically not with the club anymore I wondered who will get the oh so sacred Number 10. Will Wenger promote from within and maybe Arshavin gets it? Or will we see a nice new quality player like a Gourcuff, a Van Der Vaart or even a Joe Cole donning the famous number??

Whatever happens no team is complete or looks right without a Number 10, so I hope Wenger doesnt retire it.