Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano has come forward to announce that he too believes Cesc Fabregas will stay at Barcelona.
“I see him here training and he is happy,” Mascherano said.
“He grew up in Barcelona and feels the call of the shirt.”
Mascherano is not known to be one of world football’s most notable wordsmiths but we’ve got to hand it to him – ‘the call of the shirt’ comment is a priceless and underutilized descriptor.
El Ratón continued: “It is difficult when you grow up here to leave because Barcelona is a big team, a big city, really nice to live in and all his family is here. I think he is a really key player for us and I think the coach and the people who work here want to keep him.”
Mascherano’s wisdom falls nicely in line with the well-tread footsteps of teammates Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Alex Song and Andres Iniesta, all of whom have all come forward to say they believe Fabregas will stay at Barcelona.
So we can go ahead and expect similar comments to be issued from Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Victor Valdez and Dani Alves by the end of the week. Because that’s simply how Barcelona operates – they hunt in packs.
And right now, their focus is on sinking their teeth into the injured fawn that is Manchester United manager David Moyes – and shredding him like a referee who’s whistled a controversial decision.
The goal of the hunt is simple and well-calculated – prevent Moyes from submitting a third, potentially ginormous-sized bid that might just make Barcelona president Sandro Rosell re-think his stance on keeping Fabregas.
Will the pack succeed?
