Excellent Cesc Interview + Thoughts On Vela Loan And Sanchez Watt

A short while back I bumped into an interview given by Cesc Fabregas just before the Man City game. I’m not sure if others have shared this or not or if people have already seen it on TV or some other site. Since the youtube views count was only 1455, which seems quite low for such an interview, I thought it’s worth sharing.

Among other things, El Capitan was talking about his feelings for Arsenal. If you love Arsenal and adore Cesc this interview is highly reassuring. If you think Cesc does not have his head in the right place anymore or that he doesn’t want to play for Arsenal then you just have to watch this.

In other news, Arsene mentioned that there are 10 clubs interested in taking Carlos Vela on loan with three or four of those from England. Le Boss said he prefers a team in England but a lot will depend on Vela as well.

I’m hoping the Mexican international will pick a club in England and will grind it out for the rest of the season. It would be easier for him to go to Spain where he’s already played and the culture and language are a lot more familiar. But I feel a player in his situation has to move out of his comfort zone a little and pick the toughest option at this stage of his career.

I don’t wish to belittle the work he does or the difficulties involved in moving between countries and cultures at such a young age but there has been a thought in my mind for a while that Vela doesn’t do enough. It’s not a black and white situation where you either work hard or you don’t work hard. I don’t think Arsene would accept any slackers on his training ground.

There are times when it seems a player just has to offer something more than what is asked of him. It has to be his own initiative and should show that extra level of commitment and desire. I feel that Vela has struggled a bit on this front. Going to a tough place like Bolton or some other Premier League club where he will have to fight for his place and will have to battle for the ball every time he goes on the pitch will be extremely beneficial to Vela rather than a club in a foreign country where he might do much better but would find it less challenging.

Finally, I wanted to comment on the fact that Arsenal have given Sanchez Watt the permission to play against them. Wenger said that he has always been in favour of allowing players to play against their parent clubs and it’s something I agree with.

In this case, if Watt gets to play, it will be the best way for the fans to see how a highly rated youngster performs against the pros. It will show us the level of the academy and the level of jump required to move from there to the starting line-up. Sometimes I feel people don’t realize that the gap between youth football, or even reserves for that matter, and actual first team action is quite big.

To be clear, I’m not trying to deride the performances of players at youth or reserves levels. I just want to see the difference between that level and the highest one. If Watt can play at his best we should get a fairly good idea.

See you with the match preview in a few hours.