Cesc Fabregas Reveals Key Arsene Wenger Message Influencing Coaching Career | OneFootball

Cesc Fàbregas has revealed the philosophy in his coaching style that he owes to legendary former Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger.

Fàbregas was picked up from Barcelona’s La Masia aged 16 and Wenger was responsible for shaping and moulding the formative years of the midfielder’s senior career.

He was Arsenal’s youngest ever player at the time of his debut in 2003, a record since broken by current day teen prodigy Ethan Nwaneri, and was a first-team regular from 17. Within a few months of turning 21, Fàbregas was named Gunners captain by Wenger and always seemed like he would one day become a natural coach, just now finishing up his first season in charge of Serie A’s Como.

“I’m a guy that I like to ask a lot of questions, to speak, to be open to, to talk, to debate,” Fàbregas explained in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

“During my career, with all the coaches that I’ve had, I have books with a lot of notes of things that I liked, what I didn’t like, what I learned or didn’t learn, what this coach did in this situation, what this coach did, what were the players feeling when the coach gave this message or the coach did that?”

In addition to Wenger, Fàbregas played under Pep Guardiola, Vicente del Bosque and José Mourinho, among others during a playing career that ultimately took in five clubs in four countries, 110 international caps, and spanned 20 years. But a particular message from Wenger has stuck.

“Like Arsène Wenger used to say, you always need to build the house from [the ground up],” he said.

“You cannot build a house from the roof. You know, you need to start here. Principles, behaviours, discipline, respect, hard work, all of that.”

Fàbregas’s Como will finish 2024–25, the club’s first top flight season in more than two decades, in 10th place, in the top half of the table. It is a remarkable achievement for a small-town club, and one they will hope to kick on from.

“The pressure is on constantly and you feel it much more than when you were a player, 100%.” Fàbregas reflected as the campaign comes to a close.

“You feel that everything that is building, there is only one responsible and it is [on] you. I always say the ones who win and lose are the players because the coaches, yes, we are very important, but, [as coaches], we cannot score, we cannot make passes, we cannot make dribbling, we cannot defend.

“But we are the first one responsible of absolutely everything that happens on the pitch.”