On Thursday, we decided to ignore a ‘big’ news story.
Cesc Fabregas had been interviewed by Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport and, when asked which side he’d like to join if he ever moved to Italy, he gave an honest answer.
“I would undoubtedly pick the Rossoneri,” he said.
“I think Milan are the Italian side that play the best football.”
Now, we’re not stupid. It’s quite easy to come up with a headline to accompany the article along the lines of ‘Fabregas fancies Milan move’, but we decided to behave ourselves. It’s a bit like asking someone if they’d prefer be put to death by electric chair or lethal injection and then coming up with a headline like ‘Suicidal man fancies lethal injection’.
Some members of the press aren’t like us. They like to give you the story and let you decide what you make of it. And by ‘let you decide what you make of it’, they mean ‘hope you’ll wilfully misread his comments based on a technically accurate but highly dubious headline’.
It prompted Fabregas to issue yet another denial. “I am 100 percent committed to this club,” he told the club’s official website. “My future is here."
It’s really becoming very tedious. The Ronaldo saga last (and presumably this) summer began to have all the entertainment value of blinking after the first month or so, but at least Ronaldo did actually suggest he wanted to leave United. It’s the same with Arshavin and Podolski at the moment – they do actually want to leave, so the stories at least have a slight basis in fact.
Here’s a few assorted quotes from Fabregas from the last few months.
“Each year people talk about me leaving yet I’m still here and I want to be part of the future of Arsenal” – November 2008
"Everybody knows I have a long-term contract and that I am happy here” – October 2008
“I'm happy here and I will have success here” – September 2008
"I want to be here for as many years as I can to play for Arsenal. I don't want to think about other clubs. I am happy where I am. It is home for me” – August 2008
"I'm an Arsenal player 100 percent. No-one has told me anything to the contrary” – July 2008
"My future is with Arsenal and I am very happy to stay there” – June 2008
"I will stay at Arsenal" – May 2008
Transfer speculation really is a whole lot more fun when you can’t instantly dismiss it as nonsense. It’d be nice if the press could try a bit harder.