From John Leake
Myles,
What a World Cup.
An awful performance by England on paper, but watching the matches I think this was the Three Lions’ best squad and most positive performance (bar Rooney) since 1996.
Your comment about Cesc facing his greatest challenge at Chelsea reminded me of that classic story you like to reference about his first experience with Spain.
The short version is: Aragones had in-depth tactical preparations for each player and each opponent, which Cesc had never experienced at Arsenal.
Furthermore, the young player was surprised to find from his teammates that Aragones was the rule, Wenger the exception, when it came to top level management.
This first glimpse of the “other side” started the kid’s mind wondering what world existed outside the Colney hedges.
All this to say: Fabregas is now under the watchful eye of Mourinho, a manager notorious for overpreparing his own players and playing mind games with the opponents, and who has a knack of bringing the best out of elite players with chips on their shoulders.
I was gutted as any Arsenal fan to see Wenger turn away our former captain, and though I understand why he did it, I worry that Chelsea and Mourinho could be just the thing to re-ignite his talent and passion.
Will he be Chelsea’s version of Sneijder in 2010?
From Mike : Fabregas
Hey Myles,
Speaking of Fabregas, he supplied the pass for Torres’ winner in 2008, the pass for Iniesta’s winner in 2010, and the pass for Silva’s headed winner in 2012.
3 for 3.
Not too bad.
Myles says:
Mourinho knows what components he needs.
He won Serie A and then told Moratti he needed three players to win the Champions League: Lucio, Sneijder and Diego Milito.
He got them and won Serie A again and became European Champions and the Brazilian, the Dutchman and the Argentinian all played key roles.
24th June 2014