Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas is lifting the lid on his decision to leave the club in 2011.
The wonderful Spanish midfielder was the Gunners captain, but felt frustrated by his teammates’ collective commitment to winning.
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Now 32 and playing for Monaco, Fabregas turned back the clock to 2011 in a podcast interview with Arseblog.
He felt that his level was above the bunch, outside of Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie, and accepted a $40 million-plus move to childhood club Barcelona.“I was the captain, I always felt so much pressure on myself,” Fabregas said. “I had to lead this team to win something. I gave everything. Sometimes, I used to go home after we lost and I used to cry.
“I used to suffer, I used to spend sleepless nights suffering. And then you lose a game, you’re in the bus like this, destroyed, and then you hear some players laughing, thinking about where they will be going out later. This was going on for a few years. We were playing beautiful football and I enjoyed that side of things but I was putting pressure on myself to lead, to do everything and at one point I felt kind of lonely.”
His final season featured a number of mercurial talents, including Andrei Arshavin, Carlos Vela, and Nicklas Bendtner.
Fabregas hit double-digit assists for Arsenal four times, including an absurd 20-assist season in 2007/08 and a 15-goal, 15-assist campaign in 2009/10. Following three good seasons with Barcelona, he returned to the PL with Chelsea and had a 19-assist season in his first year back in England.
Fabregas has three assists this season for Monaco, averaging 1.3 key passes and 40.8 passes per game.