Jose Mourinho has revealed how he had to set aside family considerations in order to sign star midfielder and former Barcelona and Arsenal player Cesc Fabregas.
Mourinho is what you can call a “family man” as he loves his family a lot so much that he still feels sorry about missing out on seeing his son playing in a final tournament with Fulham.
But surely Mourinho must have had a good reason.
He said: “My son was in Germany with Fulham and they qualified to play in the final tournament and I wanted to go, I have never watched him play and that weekend I wanted to go”.
But it was the only day that Fabregas could travel to London, so I had to stay to do my job. No problem he said, I will watch my son play at other times.
In the end, it seems that the ten minute conversation Mourinho had with Fabregas turned out to be a good decision, at least so far.
Mourinho revealed how he got Fabregas to join Chelsea.
He said: “I was objective with him, and he went on to state how he explained to Fabregas how he would fit into the team and the system Chelsea will play this season, allaying the fears of Fabregas that he may be used in various wrong positions as he had experienced in his previous season with Barcelona.”
Mourinho said: “I gave him different possibilities; you will play here, not there. This is the way we want to play, this is the way we are going to develop the team. No fake number 9, outside left or right. What I need is this and this and everything was so clear.”
This obviously went a long way in convincing Fabregas that Chelsea was the club for him.
Fabregas had been looking for a way out of Barcelona for sometime, he had not been happy with his role at Barcelona, partly due to the fact he was being played out of position due to the form of both Xavi and Iniesta, but also he felt he was not having the love of the Barcelona faithful’s anymore.
Manchester had made a move to bring Fabregas back to England, but the Spanish international felt slighted at the approach of Manchester United.
He felt he was second choice because Manchester United had also made a move for fellow Barcelona team mate Thiago Alcantra, who eventually joined Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich.
Fabregas felt due to the loss of Alcantra to Bayern Munich, Manchester United turned to him and this did not make him feel wanted.
The fact still remained though that Fabregas was willing to leave the Nou Camp and preferably back to the EPL.
Then came the rumours of Arsenal buying back Fabregas after Barcelona had revealed the player could go for the right price, it was said that Arsenal had the first right of refusal and could also have activated a buy back clause if they wanted.
But Arsenal chose not to take up the offer due to the fact that they had bought Mesut Ozil the previous season for a whooping 42 million pounds.
Whatever reasons it was that both Manchester United and Arsenal did not sign Fabregas, Chelsea stepped in and was decisive as Mourinho further revealed:
“We spoke about football, we spoke about the Chelsea project, about the way I want him to play, the way I want him to transform my team, the philosophy of Chelsea as a team, in general terms we spoke about his pay though both are not my jobs, we spoke about it and after that he said “yes I want to go on no doubt,” Mourinho continued: “he was really happy to join us and after that I contacted my club and they moved so fast which I was not expecting, because these things take time, but my club was fantastic.
Mourinho knew he needed a midfielder and one with a proven track record and pedigree, a creative genius to replace Frank Lampard.
Mourinho had considered options such as Juventus’s Paul Pogba, Atletico Madrid’s Koke and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Paulinho, hence the speed they moved to secure the services of Fabregas.
It is quite surprising though to see the pair together at Stamford Bridge as there has been quite a few clashes between Mourinho and Fabregas in the past.
In fact, this situation can be compared to that of Samuel Eto’o and Mourinho where Eto’o had said he could never play for Mourinho, well; the rest they say is history.
It could be recalled that just last season Fabregas had told Mourinho to “shut up” and mind his own business after he criticized Barcelona.
Mourinho does not consider such as an issue anymore as he said: “The only thing I know is that when I spoke with him for the first time, obviously he knew I was the Chelsea manager. I spoke with him and after ten minutes he told me he wanted to join us.”
Mourinho now will be feeling happy signing Fabregas eventually despite missing out on his son’s match who by the way is a goal keeper that helped Fulham to win their match against PSG, beating them 1-0 to win the Jeno Konrad trophy.
Mourinho and Chelsea’s decision to sign Fabregas may well prove to be a master stroke especially if Fabregas assists and goals deliver trophies to the club at the end of the season.
