Firstly I would like to thank everyone at FC Barcelona where I enjoyed 3 wonderful years. It was my childhood club and I will always be proud and honoured that I had a chance to play for such a great team.

I do feel that I have unfinished business in the Premier League and now is the right time for me to return. Yes, everyone knows that Arsenal had the first option to sign me. They decided not to take this option and therefore it wasn't meant to be. I wish them well in the future.

I considered all the other offers very carefully and I firmly believe that Chelsea is the best choice. They match my footballing ambitions with their hunger and desire to win trophies. They have an amazing squad of players and an incredible manager. I am fully committed to this team and I can't wait to start playing.

It was extremely important to me that this transfer was completed before the World Cup so that my mind will only be focused on hopefully helping my country try to retain the trophy.

so after some time and a football match (disgraceful refereeing) I'm kind of okay with this. We didn't need cesc, if he wants to ruin his arsenal legacy, it's his choice. He was close to being a legend, now he's nothing to us. But so what ? I hope he fails badly and does a torres at chelsea. I'm just sad because I loved him so much, but does it hurt Arsenal ? Not really, bring on the new signings wenger.

@wolfie thing is we rejected cesc. So this gif doesn't really work, at all. But I shouldn't try to argue against these things, cause you can't win against gifs.

We lost a very good player victim of the bad team management, he never played at his post, very big move for Chelsea specially for taking Fabregas.
Im interested to see the change of Mourinho Style, wich is good news for Chelsea fans, i hope he does well.

@KH The cesc homecoming game at the Emirates will have a very warm reception for him. haha
You should fly down and throw a pigs head onto the field. ;)

Fabregas at least didnt moved directly to Chelsea, this video start shows how fierce was the Clasico that time.

YES!
We're bringing CESC-Y back

Them other boys don't know how to act

Take him to the bridge!!

@tikie

4:06 is that Valdes ? :D

About loyalty

I don't understand loyalty part . This season we released players like Lampard and Ashley Cole . These two players have done so much for our club . Chelsea board did not show loyalty to keep them , so why should players do ? Why did not Lampard stay at West Ham United , or Joe Cole , Or Michael Carrick , or Germain Defoe and etc ? BEcause they left to a club where they will achieve more in their careers ,finically and trophy wise or they thought they will achieve more . Either way they all wanted successful career to leave a mark on football history , they probably thought about staying with their boyhood club forever , but as they grew they realized bigger club brings bigger things in life.

I think Lampard does not want to go back Hammers probably because he does not want to fall out with Chelsea fans . I would not mind . I think football fans are hypocrites , because if anyone offered them a better job all of them will take in a heart beat or if anyone offered them good pay during their retirement age , again they would have taken it . Doing what you love and still making a name and getting paid . MONEY RULES , WETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT .

Who cares if Figo went to Real madrid directly ? He did it what was best for him or maybe Barca just sold him and pushed him out just like Chelsea did with Juan Mata . No one was pissed about Mata joining our rivals . Bacary Sagna left to City ( direct title rival ) everyone seem to be chilled , but Fabregas came to chelsea everyone is loosing their minds .

Football is business , nothing personal. Football fans make it personal , because they have nothing else better in their life then threat and harass a player during and after football match just because he went to other rival club for certain reasons. Also some way , footballers are at fault too for showing too much love for the club and creating fans expectation to themselves.

No he isnt, but he looks like Valdes :).
You have a point there, no emotions in capitalism even in sports, Football has become a lucrative job rather than a simple game, and there is no shame changing company (club) for a bigger salary, but seing What a hapened to Figo, a Barça player will think twice before joining Madrid.
We dont mind selling you Fabregas, or Seling Villa to Atleti or even selling to Espagnol but Hell not to Madrid, i think in England fans are just used now to this kind of behaviour even players, it became normal to play for Arsenal today and for Blues or Spurs tomorrow, many have done this, so players dont fear the fans anger anymore.
At Barça its impossible now for a Barça player to switch to Madrid, IMPOSSIBLE nobody wants to be the new Figo in fans mind and its very good like this.

It is people like this ********************** who ruin football loyalty and passion. If i was an Arsenal fan I would try to kill him and then, in my defence, show people that quote from 2010...

sad day for football...

But what if he had joined United, will you be equally pissed off? And also for Arsenal fans, In the traitor-meter is this worst than RVP?

Statement from Barcelona

*" "There has been a downward trend in his stats every season at the club," the statement read.*"He slipped right back into the FCB system as if he'd never been away. But despite glowing starts to each campaign, Cesc's contributions to the cause gradually decreased as each season drew to a close." "

This is a betrayal to Fabregas . Where is loyalty ? At least loyalty to be respectful to a player who gave up lot and played in every position without complaining .

Selling David Villa to a direct rival who also played big role in Atletico's title run . Villa was kicked out .

We all forgot about Eric . What about Eric Abidal ? Guy who was supposed to stay until retirement because Barca promised him after his cancer treatment . Why were not fans mad about this ?

Welcome to Stamford Bridge, Cesc Fabregas!

"It is people like this ********************** who ruin football loyalty and passion. If i was an Arsenal fan I would try to kill him and then, in my defence, show people that quote from 2010...

sad day for football..."

lolwut? You do know that Arsenal was offered the chance to sign him and they refused. If both Arsenal and Chelsea were interested and he chose Chelsea, I could understand, but Arsenal did not want to sign him. I don't see how anyone other than Wenger is responsible.

@marcus yeah the statement on barcelona's website is disgusting. They are the bad guys in this story.

@Tuanis: I have to disagreed, your comment is quite confusing, but the first part was aimed at Cecs which is unfair. He always said Arsenal would be his first priority, Wenger refused him, is there ANY other club that has big project and playing in CL can pay his salary? I dont say it's the best decision but your claim is really harsh.

That's a pretty harsh statement from Barcelona, but then again, they made a big investment on him for upcoming seasons (35 million or something like that) and he couldn't deliver well enough. Even despite his downfall, Barcelona still managed to let him go for 30 million. I personally think this is a win for them.

Guys, calm down on Barca's statement. I was astonished by how Barca COULD HAVE EVER published this kind of lame-ass-statement.

But then I've googled and there is no trace whatsoever leads to Barca's official website. In fact, the first few came from goal.com (Andrew Wychrij) >.< and from Goal??? (may be I haven't done enough research)

Despite the fact that Barca's management has been absolute sh*t recently, I dont think they have gone this LOW.

We need more proof

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/cesc-fabregas-three-years-in-numbers

@tuan lol here is the proof

@kingHenry: you just posted, so is that safe to say this article as it is now is what have been published (for the sake of the argument? The article was published yesterday: 12 June at 16:55. There is no sign of modification.

And there was NO SIGN whatsoever of the "lame-ass-statement" everyone was talking about, please prove me wrong, all I read is praising Cecs as the 3rd most regular player.

Have a look, and tell me where is the "There has been a downward trend in his stats every season at the club" :

Ok my point was just about your "proof". But as some readers in other forums said: the original "spanish" article was wrongly translated and hoax was created by some bad journalist for view sake. NOthing new

@tuan here is the statement screenshoted before they changed it. Incredible to see this from a club that big. Apparently it was in all three languages, so it was not a mistake or just an end of the chain employee.

Even after the edit there is not even a single "thank you cesc", or a "we'll miss you cesc", or a "good luck at chelsea cesc". It's just "look at all the trophies we gave you, you'll never be as successful as you were with us". So so so so bitter. The worst goodbye statement I've seen from a club to a player.

@KingHenry: thanks mate.

1. This is pathetic. The management should control what should be released on the site... this is just unacceptable.

2. As I mentioned, it might due to the stupid translation (as some mentioned too).

Either way, it's bad for the club's image.