Cesc Fabregas is a fantastic player. Nobody can deny that. But is he good enough to break into Barcelona’s first team or will he end up as the boy who returned home after 8 years just to sit on the bench?

Last night Fabregas came on after 82 minutes. He was involved in Barcelona’s winning goal and was then brutally scythed down by Marcelo, prompting a mass brawl. It seems that in ten minutes of football he has contributed more to Barcelona than Alexander Hleb. (Who is still there by the way with a €90 million buyout clause!) If Hleb is the benchmark, (pun definitely intended) then Fabregas is safe. He is viewed as a long term successor to Xavi and, whilst he must be aware that becoming a first team regular now is near impossible, as it would mean displacing Iniesta or Xavi himself. There is plenty of hope for the new arrival.
Fabregas has been relentlessly pursued by Barcelona. (It may be possible to say that no other player in football history has been so relentlessly pursued.) For the last three years endless speculation has linked him back to Camp Nou and these are years when Barcelona have been dominating European football. He has certainly not been pursued out of footballing necessity. This is something different, deeper. He is undoubtedly a political signing. Whether this increases his chances of making it into the team is not know, he will still have to earn his place like everybody else. What it will do however is buy him time to make an impact and give him the patience and support of the fans.

It’s tempting to think of Fabregas’s signing as the final piece of the jigsaw except that Barcelona already look complete. So how does he fit in?
Fabregas has been pursued because he is the most like for like replacement for Iniesta or Xavi in the world. For €35 million Barcelona have signed the perfect understudy to perhaps the two most creative centre midfielders on the planet. He has had the same teachers and the same teaching. He plays like them and he thinks like them and the latter is probably priceless. Fabregas has already shown that he won’t need time to adjust by stepping onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go in El Classico only 2 days after arriving at the club.

Whilst it is tempting to say that Fabregas is too good a player to wind up on the bench, he has chosen the one team in the world where it could happen. However, in 2 days he has already won as many trophies as he did during his time at Arsenal so right now I doubt he’s too worried.

Blog by Philip Wroe

Did he forget how Real Madrid was pursuing Cristiano Ronaldo. Now that was annoying. Seemed like 3 years

It doesn't matter if Fabregas warms the bench. The football that is going to come from his pairing with whomever may be in midfield alongside him and just playing with a player like Messi will be incredible. He's going to have REAL finishers collecting his through balls!

His touches and passes during his minutes in the 2nd leg looked like he'd been at Barca the whole time. We may just see Iniesta warming the bench to Fabregas. It'll be a very nice tactic to be able to switch those two out in a game

I don't think you saw Fabregas play in the Supercopa. Going forward he looked better than Xavi, dare I say it. He will get a lot of playing time and Xavi and Iniesta's place is by no means secure

Fabregas is obviously a long term replacement for the two midfield generals, difference is that when most people buy a long term replacement they do it on a young, cheap, less established player than Fabregas but I guess if you've got the cash then why not.

Also, this is actually pretty good news for the England national team, with no Fab in the team Wilshire has a 100% cemented place and the starting 11 (if he didn't have one already), which will help him get even better even quicker

I don't get why they don't just put fabregas in Centre defencive mid, he would play well there and he is surely better then Sergio Busquets. He is a quality player, and should surely be a starter

What is going to be the best is when Guardiola plays all three of them in mid-field at the same time. No set positions, just put them in and let them rotate all over the pitch. Dutch. Total. Football.

When this happens Barca will be unstoppable

Barca is by far the best football club in Europe hands down. But with the addition of Fabregas, it'll give the midfield a touch of class and free flowing play that Fabregas has shown at his time at Arsenal. This could be the season where Barca is crowned the best football club in history when they win every competition they enter including back to back European Cups and another Club World Cup.

I think Arsenal feed man city more then any other club (toure, nasri, clichy, adebayor, ....)

I only regret selling clichy and toure because defensively we would probably be safe (sagna, vermalen, toure, clichy)

It's more like Barca's bench feeding Arsenal's bank account

I think Fabregas will get a good amount of playing time at Barca and I expect him to big an even bigger success with the Spanish Champions than he was with Arsenal. I still can't believe the price that Barca got him for