Fabregas: ‘I designed the gym at Como, Premier League in 12-15 years’
Cesc Fabregas explains why he is in no rush to leave Como, even if he’d like to work in the Premier League ‘in 12, 15 years,’ because he has control. ‘I take all the football decisions, I designed the gym.’
The tactician has taken Como from Serie B to the top flight, the Coppa Italia semi-final and now challenging for a Champions League qualifying place in the space of three years.
It has attracted so much attention that there were reports he had been approached by Chelsea and Arsenal, two of his former clubs as a player, but insists he is in no rush to leave the Stadio Sinigaglia.
Fabregas eager to see Como develop
“The Premier League is the best league in the world,” Fabregas told Telegraph Sport.
“I’ve always been very, very clear about it. I felt it as a player, I feel it as a coach, as a fan. But [Jose] Mourinho told me one day when I was at Chelsea ‘I still have 30 years to work’. So I could be here for 10 years, and you can still go to the Premier League in 12, 15 years.
“Football is so unpredictable, it changes in one second. One day, you are the best. The day after, you are the worst. So let’s enjoy the moment. I like to enjoy the moment. It’s beautiful what we are living here. Let’s see what the future holds.”
Seeing the speed at which some clubs go through managers, he has even more reason to stick it out with Como, where he represents far more than just a coach.
When he joined as a player in 2022, the Spaniard also invested as a minority shareholder, and has been given the keys to the club by billionaire owners the Hartono family.
“I take all the football decisions. The sporting director, he’s day-to-day with me and we see football the same way. The signings, we work with data, we have our scouting and stuff, but it needs to be something that I believe in. It needs to be a player that I’m convinced about.
“I’m so happy and lucky that we have a president that trusts me a lot and has given me the confidence to go and take all the football decisions. That, for me, is really important.”
Fabregas repeatedly said that he used to open the gates of the training ground at 6am, but goes into further detail of how much Como have built to follow his vision.
“The gym I designed with the architect. I designed the glass on the front. I learned it from Arsène [Wenger]. I remembered that the gym needs to be looking at the game on the pitches for the injured players.
“All the food comes here, it was an old building, and I did it the way that I feel is right. And all the pitches, everything. At the stadium, I said we need a bigger pitch because we are a team that wants the ball, we have possession. So I made the pitch bigger.
“In Italy, people were saying ‘no, no, why 65 metres? Make it 63 because that means you can defend better’. So it’s a bit the concept of you look at football in one way or another.”
Now that they are on the verge of qualifying for Europe, Fabregas can’t wait to see what happens next at Como.
“We started this journey, not on the ground floor, but at minus 10. So we’re ahead of schedule and we are in the early days. I feel that this club has so much potential, but this is what I was given. You know, this is the beauty of this project, starting from nothing to make one day a European club.”
“I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’m in a beautiful place with amazing people who let me work and they trust me. Every day, I feel like I am at university because every day I need to make a crazy amount of decisions all over the club. And, for me, this is good because I’m learning faster than maybe doing it another way.”
Some had suggested Fabregas would make a good Italy coach, but this is another thing he is in absolutely no hurry to experience.
“If you ask me now ‘do you want to coach a national team?’ I will tell you ‘no’. Because I love coaching. I love being every day on the grass. I love being with the young players. I love the individual sessions. I love it all.”