Why Cesc SHOULD have been with his team mates rather than at the Spanish Grand Prix

By Darren Lewis

Published 12:00 25/05/11

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It's hard to believe Cesc Fabregas was at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

I also can't get over the people who think I have a vendetta against the Arsenal captain by being shocked.

Do fans really think journalists get up, look in the mirror, have a shave, and think: 'How can I get stuck into x or y player or team today?'

It might surprise you to learn that we do actually have better things to do.

The uncomfortable truth for Fabregas is that his action on Sunday confirmed what many people have felt for some time - he is a superb player but just not a leader.

To go to the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday instead of attending Arsenal's final game of the season was simply poor, poor PR.

For goodness' sake, we are talking about a trip across London to Fulham, not a flight to some far-flung outpost such as Dinamo Kiev.

How could he, or the people around him, not see it as such after a season in which his leadership qualities had been questioned time and again?

He had gone with the full permission of Arsene Wenger. But it just looked so bad.

You'd have thought Fabregas would have WANTED to be with his team-mates at the end of such a traumatic season.

You'd have thought he'd WANT to be seen to be committed with talk persisting that he'd rather be at Barcelona.

How can the fans that interpreted the furore as journalists trying to cause trouble not see how bad it looks with rumours of cliques and indiscipline hovering over Arsenal like a dark cloud throughout this season?

How is it right that David Sullivan, the joint-owner at West Ham, gets mullered for not supporting his team at Manchester City, but some Arsenal fans think Fabregas should be spared similar scrutiny?

To be fair, lots of fans DID condemn Fabregas for not being in the trenches with his team-mates to the end.

So much so in fact that the Spanish midfielder removed from Twitter a picture he'd posted while his team-mates were preparing for their final game of the season.

Could you see Sir Alex Ferguson allowing a player - his club captain to boot - to go to a Grand Prix instead of representing Manchester United on the final game of the season?

The Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was at Villa Park, sitting in the away end, for their defeat to Aston Villa, even though he is injured.

When I posted on Twitter asking for the views of non-Arsenal fans, they replied in their droves with examples of injured players who, time and again, made it their business to be with their team-mates on matchday.

For me, this whole issue is not about whether or not Cesc is off to Barcelona (a subject so old and tired even Arsenal fans must be bored by it).

It is about the fact that we live in an age where image is everything.

Fairly or unfairly, rumours persist of Wenger presiding over a dressing room riven by indiscipline this season: from Andrey Arshavin, who appears to have been introduced to fish and chips, to injury-prone Robin van Persie trying to dictate transfer policy; from Nicklas Bendtner making public ultimatums to younger players making life difficult for themselves on Twitter.

There has been (unsubstantiated) talk of players from different nationalities sticking together in cliques at mealtimes and (actual fact) goalkeepers coming out in the press to maintain they should be playing ahead of the man picked by Wenger.

The decision of the club captain, therefore, to spend matchday away from the rest of the squad has context.

Fans can shoot the messenger all they want if they think the issue is with us pointing out the problem.

But the fact is, when you compare Arsenal with the togetherness of, say Manchester United or the return to traditional values of Liverpool, they come off very poorly indeed.

Arsenal fans are quick to point out that Wenger blames everyone but himself when the team is not winning.

Maybe it is time to accept the captain is not as untouchable as people think.

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