Ramsey helping Gunners forget Fabregas

We have all been there; the moment when we see that special someone who not so long ago meant so much enjoying themselves with someone new.

Ramsey helping Gunners forget Fabregas

We have all been there; the moment when we see that special someone who not so long ago meant so much enjoying themselves with someone new.

Affairs of the heart, of course, are more infinitely complex than simply the colour of a shirt worn by our one-time favourite player, the poster-pinups which once adorned bedroom walls in red, now very much at home in blue. The feeling of hurt, though, can run just as deep.

So for some Arsenal fans you can understand why watching Cesc Fabregas celebrate as he helped new club Chelsea to a 3-1 win at Burnley on Monday night will have seemed just as much of a betrayal as when your aforementioned ex is determined to start afresh – and looking good while out strutting their stuff too.

After all, this was the man who once claimed “Arsenal is in my heart and always will be. If some day I leave Arsenal it will never be to sign for another English team. I am very sure.”

There have been a few players who made such proclamations in the past, Alan Shearer being perhaps the most notable as the “sheet-metal-worker’s son from Gosforth” never pulled on his boots for another professional club after hanging them up when calling time at home-town club Newcastle at the end of the 2005/2006 season.

But in the modern game, where not all, but probably most consider their only loyalty to the bank balance, should we be surprised? Does it really matter if someone kisses the Gunners badge and then is puckering his lips around a staff-wielding lion?

Perhaps not.

“You have to accept that professional players move from club to club,” said Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, the man responsible for nurturing the raw talents of a promising 15-year-old Spaniard from Barcelona into one of the most dynamic midfielders in world football, only to then decide against bringing Fabregas back from the Nou Camp earlier this summer, which opened the door for a £30m switch to Chelsea.

“After he has left us for one club, you accept the idea that he can move to some different clubs. Of course it was a bit strange to see him in a Chelsea shirt, but he had a good game.”

Yet even with his own unique sense of pragmatism, Wenger is not immune from reflecting on what might have been.

“It was difficult for me to see him leave us,” he added.

“I have no regret about that (not re-signing him from Barcelona) at all. My regret is that he left us.”

Life, love and football, of course, move on.

No sooner have the ’Fabregas 4’ memorabilia been consigned to the recycling bin, a new poster boy emerges as Aaron Ramsey takes on the mantle of Arsenal talisman, his extra-time goal at Wembley winning the FA Cup to finally end the long trophy drought which in part edged the former captain closer to his Emirates Stadium exit.

“That’s good in life – somebody moves out and somebody else takes over,” said Wenger of the Wales midfielder.

“Aaron has developed into a player with huge potential. He is younger than Cesc and the potential is there to get more out of Aaron.”

Traded in for a younger model? Now where have I heard that one before?......

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