Cesc Fabregas looks towards the sky and says that someone up there must love him very much. It is the day after his first match in 11 months and, save for a knock on his left knee that is causing some discomfort, there is child-like joy at being a footballer again.
There were moments last year, he tells Mirror Football , when he felt “miserable” as life at Monaco went pear-shaped, injuries and illness restricting him to two league appearances. At one point the 35-year-old wondered if this was the end, that he would never again feel the buzz of being in the heat of action.
But now at Como, the Serie B side he became part-owner of last month, there are two more seasons to purely enjoy competing.
“It felt like making my debut at 16 again,” he says. “A year without playing has never happened in my life so to have that feeling, even though we lost, is like a victory. I suffered a lot. I worked very hard for this day to arrive. One day last year I remember I came home and my wife told me I was not happy. I was miserable, actually.”
Back in his happy place, Fabregas is in the mood to talk about the intricacies of the game.
It is never not enlightening to hear a World Cup winner, one of the finest creators of the Premier League era, break down what he experiences on the pitch.
The movements of those around him. How opponents can get so close that he feels their breath on his neck as he receives possession. Why body shape is more important than words. And how there is little more satisfying in life than chipping the ball over a defence and onto the chest of a striker.
“We could be talking for hours and hours about this,” he says when asked to describe what he sees when the ball arrives and he is looking to set a forward away.
“It's difficult to explain. I rely a lot on my team-mates because I'm not super fast, strong or agile. I rely on my passing, technique and vision. Those are the three things I need to do well or else I cannot play well. I always try to anticipate the move, where the ball is going.”
Can this form of anticipation be coached or is it something the gifted few are born with? “A bit of both,” Fabregas reckons, but team-mates past and present reckon it is mostly the latter.
The evening before this interview Thierry Henry, a close friend of Fabregas who has also invested in Como, is gushing in his praise for a player who provided silver-platter service for three and a bit years at Arsenal.
“With your eyes, you see stuff and true nature but sometimes they mislead you,” Henry says. “There’s no point having eyes if your mind is blind. Cesc, Kevin De Bruyne, Dennis [Bergkamp] – the mind of those guys is not blind.”
Fabregas laughs when that line is read to him but he soon backs it up. “When you do it week in week out, this is talent. It is a sign your brain is working faster than the rest,” he says. “Some people have it, some people don't. Players who don't have it use a physical impact, things we don't have. That's why football is about balancing players for every type of position.”
On Monday night Fabregas came on in the 72nd minute with Como a goal down to Brescia and with ten men. From his third touch he noticed the opposition had decided that No10 Dimitri Bisoli would shadow his every move.
“In one second you have to analyse everything around you to make the pass that can create something,” he says of being tracked so closely. “That's what I would say is most difficult to understand – where you and your team-mates are in every moment of a game.
“It's about your body positioning, to understand that if a defender is close [he points behind his left shoulder] then the space is here [in front to the right]. If he marks you from here, you need to play one touch here. The player passing you the ball needs to be smart enough to pass you the ball here [again, to the right] if the guy marking you is [on the left] so you can then control and get away.
“With your body shape you need to help your team-mates understand where to pass. There are so many things in football that can happen. First touch for me is the most important thing in football. If my first touch isn't good I lose something, I allow my opponent to get close. But if my first touch is good I can play forward straight away. If I need three or four then you have a problem.”
Despite arriving at Arsenal aged 16, Fabregas has always been viewed as an archetype of La Masia, Barcelona ’s academy; a player who thrives in tight spaces and seems unruffled when closed down. But there is no hesitation naming the specific action that gives him the most satisfaction.
“For me the best pass is when you're close and tight to me, but I quickly receive, release and break lines with a chip when no one expects it. These passes, over the defender to the chest of the striker and he's then alone with the goalkeeper - this is a feeling I love. It has to be so precise. So if he needs to control it on the move and there is space for him to arrive in the right moment, that is a great feeling.”
Which is why he thrived playing behind Diego Costa at Chelsea as well as Henry at Arsenal.
“It’s about a connection with the striker. I could make a chip and if the striker is sleeping it looks like a bad pass but the intention was good. Or sometimes you make a pass and it's not that great but the strikers makes it look really good. It's very complex.”
While he sometimes tries to work on specific cues in training, there have been moments where verbal communication is just not required. “With Diego Costa, just to name one, there was no vocal contact. It was just a feeling that happens. You just get it right.
“The striker has a lot to say from their body shape. They always need to be ready to run - to come short and change sides or to start sprinting. If you're a fast striker you'll get in, it's just about the position.
“Defenders sometimes are concentrated for 90% but there will always be a moment when the defender doesn't expect the pass you'll make and will be sleeping. There is always a moment.”
On the flip side, Fabregas is beginning to lament the loss of freedom and creativity in the era of coaches seeking to control every aspect of the game.
Take his time under Antonio Conte at Chelsea. When the Italian arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2016, he told Fabregas that he was free to move elsewhere because he would not be part of his plans.
Talks were held with Ivan Gazidis, the former Arsenal chief, about a move to AC Milan. But Fabregas’ stubbornness meant he decided to remain at Stamford Bridge and convince Conte of his worth.
He is speaking generally, not naming any specific coaches, but the wider point is hard to dispute.
“I played the best football of my career when the coach did not tell me what to do, when I have been free of movement, free with my imagination and do what I felt where I could be more dangerous for team-mates,” he says. “That's when I'm at my best.
“Conte was telling me exactly where to go and what to do. I began to understand and I think I began to play really good football in this environment. I enjoyed it but it was not my favourite.
“It's true that once coaches tell me to be in a place without a lot of movement, static, I struggle a lot. But there are other players who don't have the tactical knowledge or sense and they need to be taught. There is a balance.
“Everything is prepared. Analysis, tactics, everyone knows how they play. Football now at a high level, everyone knows everything so you need to be very attentive to messages sent to players. Sometimes now the players are surrounded by a lot of agents and people talking to them. Before that didn't happen.
“More managers now have become more strict. ‘I am the boss and you do what I say,’ whereas before it was more of a trust relationship between player and coach. You could be more open to a conversation.
"Nowadays I hear and see from different coaches that they don't trust much about the game. They are very insecure because the job can go from them in two seconds and they want to protect themselves, I guess.”
Surely too much detail stifles creativity, diminishing the joy to be found from creating off the cuff brilliance? Are there not fewer moments of spontaneity, the surprise passes that brings him such joy?
“I saw a video the other day of Guardiola about why he doesn't give freedom to players. He says when you give too much freedom to players it becomes chaos and you can lose. That's why he needs to be tactically strong for players to know every movement. All the coaches now talk about the pattern of play. I'm not against it at all, some players will understand it in one second, others in months.
“But special talent is dying because of it. From a very young age boys are being told what to do and they are teaching plans for the game. Before there were positions but you could move more. If I'm a six and going forward, the number eight will be smart enough to cover me. These things are being lost because coaches prefer this proper strategy instead of players using their own intuition.”
