Cesc Fabregas’s agent Joseba Diaz has backed down from his previous Real Madrid courting stance and has denied that his player will be leaving Arsenal for the bright lights of La Liga this summer or anytime soon.

He told BBC Radio Five Live:

“We have one very good offer from Madrid but Cesc and Arsenal prefer he plays in London. Cesc is very grateful to Mr (Arsene) Wenger, Mr (David) Dein and the supporters of Arsenal and he just prefers playing at Arsenal next season and I think a lot of seasons in London.”

The loss of Fabregas would have been a hard blow for Arsenal to take after his meteoric rise to Arsenal first team regular and Spanish World Cup squad member this season. Having had to fill the boots of Patrick Vieira at Highbury was a hard enough task but with La Liga so full of quality Spanish players at the moment, Fabregas really had to shine in England to catch the eyes of Spain coach Luis Aragones and he did it in style.

With the signing of Tomas Rosicky and the continued rumours of Javier Saviola joining Arsenal in time for the new season, there seems to be a move towards an even more swashbuckling, adventurous Arsenal midfield style and with Fabregas in the thick of things to settle the others down and control the passing, they will be a lot more balanced in that area.

While Joseba Diaz says that Fabregas will be in London “for a lot of seasons”, I’m sure Arsenal fans will be happy just to take his continued presence one year at a time, starting with 2006/2007 and the move to Ashburton Grove.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 14th, 2006 at 10:41 am and is filed under Arsenal. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.