£100m star ready to reject every club to join Arsenal

When Cesc Fabregas left Arsenal to sign for Barcelona, he was not given the same fond farewell that Thierry Henry was given when he departed for Camp Nou.

Fabregas left the Emirates Stadium behind at a time when the Gunners were seen as a selling club. Not a summer seemed to go by without them losing their best players and the Spanish maestro was not exempt from that.

He left in acrimonious circumstances. He didn’t attend one Arsenal match due to being at a Formula 1 race and then as Spain celebrated their 2010 World Cup win, Carles Puyol forced him into putting on a Barca strip.

None of it was really ideal. The fact he then later went on to sign for Chelsea was not amazing either. Yet, in some circles, he is still held in high regard in north London.

Fast forward to 15 years after his exit and they may well sign their next version of Fabregas.

£100m midfielder keen to join Arsenal

Much of the work Arsenal complete in the transfer window this summer will revolve around the forward line.

Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez has been described as the dream target for Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta while there is reportedly an agreement on personal terms in place with Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers.

That said, it also looks as though the Gunners are aiming to bolster their midfield. Morocco superstar Ayyoub Bouaddi, who has starred at the World Cup, is on their radar and talks stemming back to the early stages of this year have already occurred.

Another target is Sandro Tonali but that pursuit is made challenging by rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs burst into the race to sign the Italian at the start of last week and have already wrapped up an agreement with the player. However, it would appear as though he is not fully sold on the idea of linking up with Roberto De Zerbi’s side.

Indeed, according to The Daily Mail, Tonali is open to joining the Lilywhites and while he is also fielding interest from Manchester City, his preference would be to join Arsenal if they firm up their interest.

The Gunners explored a move for the midfielder last winter and are interested again but the general vibe is that he is not quite a priority target at this stage.

Tottenham saw a £75m bid rejected by Newcastle for the player last week, with previous reports outlining it could take £100m to prise him away from the Toon.

Why Tonali could be Arsenal’s new Fabregas

Fabregas may well have left in controversial circumstances but there is no denying he is one of the finest signings Arsenal have ever made. Alongside Thierry Henry and Co, it was one of the best moves that Arsene Wenger completing during his time in N5.

Picked out of the Barca academy as a teenager, he made his breakthrough in English football from a very young age, eventually going on to feature on 303 occasions for the Gunners.

On his day, he was one of the most creative players in the world. He assisted 15 goals in 2008/09 for Arsenal while his best tally of 18 came in a Chelsea shirt back in 2014/15. Cesc was simply a marvel.

That said, he was not all just about the assists. In fact, during the latter stages of his career he migrated from being more of an attacking midfielder at Arsenal to being a deep-lying playmaker, someone who would patrol in front of the defence and play as something of a quarterback. Call it the Andrea Pirlo role if you will.

Well, this is a position that Tonali thrives in. He is not the creative machine that Fabregas was in his prime but there are plenty of other similarities, notably in their ability to keep things ticking over, control the tempo of a game, and also drive forward with the ball from deep.

When comparing Tonali from last season with Fabregas in one of his final seasons in England, the difference on a creative level really is night and day. In that regard, they are nothing alike.

However, the core fundamentals across the rest of their games are rather similar. Tonali just oozes class in possession of the ball. He glides across the turf beautifully. For those two areas, they are very alike.

Also incredibly press resistant, they drew a similar number of fouls from their opponents.

The Italian will rarely carve open a defence but he is able to play through the lines with ease. He’s able to slow the game down to his own tempo and level, much like Fabregas was capable of doing right throughout his career, but in particular, during the back end of his time as a player.

Indeed, once we got to the final few seasons of the Spaniard’s time as a player, he was a lot more reserved, much like Tonali is now. His job was not to attack but it was to dictate from deeper areas. In 2017/18, Fabregas only recorded four assists. In his first season with Monaco he did not record any and then in his second term in the principality, he only managed three. That certainly sounds more like the Newcastle man.