CescFabregas frustrated by Arsenal’s trophyless run

Arsenal’s captain Cesc Fabregas has aired his frustration at the lack of silverware at the club over the last six years, saying they must decide whether they want to “go out and win or develop players”.

abregas is yet to lift a trophy as Arsenal skipper, and the Gunners’ defeat by Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final in February was swiftly followed by exits from the FA Cup and Champions League against Manchester United and Barcelona, leaving the Premier League as their last faint hope of ending their six-year wait for a trophy.

As Arsene Wenger’s men prepare to travel to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night looking to revive their stuttering title challenge, the Arsenal captain has questioned whether developing young talent should be put ahead of short-term success.

“From 2007 I had already started saying “we’re not winning, but we’re playing well” and then you realise that’s no use,”Fabregas told Spanish magazine Don Balon.

“You enjoy yourself, during a phase of the championship – like this year, for example, when we were still in four different competitions.

“And you say to yourself ‘here I have everything!’ But then that final point is missing and it’s then when you have to make a decision: either go out and win or develop players.”

abregas believes Arsenal already possess the talent required to enjoy continued success, but says the club’s progress is undermined by a lack of confidence amongst the young squad.

The 23-year-old Spain midfielder has not collected a winner’s medal since Arsenal’s victory over Manchester United in the 2005 FA Cup final.

“We have plenty of quality but lack this bit of confidence,” he continued. “The problem is that the team needs to win something. That’s why it was so important to win the Carling Cup.

“We needed this cup to be able to believe in ourselves as a team. [Robin] van Persie has won an FA Cup as I have, but there’s no more.

“Nobody in the team has won anything. We are missing that ability to say: ‘now I know what it is to win and I know what it takes to win’.

“That’s what made the Arsenal team of ‘The Invincibles’ so strong, they knew how to win games, when to dig in, when to attack, they had a special intelligence to read games. Now we are very young.”

AndFabregas believes Arsenal boss Wenger would have been shown the door if he had been in charge of a Spanish club that had endured a similar trophyless run.

“If you went to Spain and said to [Pep] Guardiola, [Jose] Mourinho or Unai Emery [the Valencia manager] that they would have three years without winning a trophy, it would be obvious they would not continue [at their clubs],” he said.

“Here, it is different, the manager is intelligent and the club value different things: that the team is always in the Champions League, that we compete until the end, that we have young players, economic stability.”