Cesc Fabregas opens up on Como s success, his move to Chelsea, playing with Lionel Messi and more

Cesc Fabregas ‘prefers to lose’ than change style after 4-0 battering speaks volumes

Como manager Cesc Fabregas stated that he would “prefer to lose” than be overly defensive and gain a result against Inter Milan after the second-placed Serie A team beat his side 4-0 at the weekend.

Fabregas has made great strides with Como, who are sixth in Serie A after coming 10th last season. The Spanish boss has been married to an offensive style of high pressing and positive football.

That was his downfall against Inter on Saturday, who beat Como 4-0. Rather than accepting that sitting back might have been a useful plan, Fabregas suggested he’d die on his sword.

He said: “You can approach the game defending with a 6-3-1 formation, or 5-4-1, but I prefer to lose even with this result than do that.”

It’s a suggestion that Fabregas is married to his style, in a similar vein to the likes of Russell Martin and Vincent Kompany. That went vastly different for the former than it did the latter.

Martin was a success in the Championship with Southampton, guiding them to the Premier League – check out these betting predictions for this weekend – before his unbending nature saw them relegated in 20th place, before he headed to Rangers and stunk up the joint.

Kompany also guided a Championship club, Burnley, to the top flight, though after their relegation, he was given the Bayern Munich job, as a nod to what could be achieved under his style. He won the Bundesliga last season and this season they’ve looked among Europe’s most formidable sides.

It’s Kompany that Fabregas is most likely to emulate, with Como impressing more than the former Manchester City man’s Burnley did.

There has been a suggestion that City or Barcelona are the two sided Fabregas would soon look to jump to if those jobs opened up.

A look at Como’s stats this season suggest a side with a lot of attacking talent like the aforementioned clubs would thrive under the Spaniard’s tutelage.

Como have the fourth-most goals and shots in Serie A this season, and that they also rank highest for tackles made in the final third shows Fabregas’ desire to press high and always remain on the front foot.

In comparison, Como having the eighth-most tackles in the defensive third is a big drop-off, suggesting they’re more susceptible to being prised open than other big sides are, as a result of their high position.

That’s how Inter hit them hard, with the Serie A giants having less of the ball, making less passes and actually taking less shots.

With more quality all around, Fabregas could have much more success, and it’ll be interesting to see if he always keeps the same gung-ho attitude no matter which side he’s managing, and what the stakes are.

Cesc Fabregas opens up on Como’s success, his move to Chelsea, playing with Lionel Messi and more

The Como manager sat down with CBS Sports on the latest episode of ‘Kickin’ It’

Dec 11, 2025 at 10:53 am ET • 6 min read
Join the Conversation

Getty Images

Cesc Fabregas is widely considered as one of the most interesting young managers around Europe and it’s easy to imagine that many of the top European clubs will try to hire him in the near future, probably next summer. After his full first Serie A season in charge of Como, where they ended up in the top 10 of the table, Inter and Bayer Leverkusen tried to sign the Spanish manager but both failed. Surprising? Not really. Not because they didn’t offer what he wanted but mainly because he knows that at Como, he can make all the steps necessary and has all the resources and trust he needs. The top teams can wait.

On Messi and Arsenal

Speaking about his time at Barcelona, where he grew up as a player before moving to Arsenal, he also met a young Lionel Messi, who just moved from Argentina.

“I remember the first day he came because he sat right next to me and they told us that there is this boy coming from Argentina making a trial and he’ll be with us for a couple of weeks,” he said. “But yeah, he had immediate impact because he didn’t speak a word, he didn’t, he was super shy, he sat down. We were a good group, I have to say in that generation. And after that, on the pitch, he started talking straight away, very, very fast. I always tell that story that there was one against one situations, and at the beginning of the training, and I was quite good defending one against one at that age, after, when I grew up, not so much, but when he was facing me, you see a small boy, he was really, really tiny.”

Also, talking about his Arsenal days, Fabregas reflected on when he decided to go back to the Premier League but joined Chelsea instead of his beloved team.

“At the beginning, when I was going to leave, I thought, I’m going back to Arsenal. That was my thought and what I expected at that moment. They had a week, Arsene Wenger had a week to respond, to take the option or not, they never came back. They stayed quiet. So there was only one way and one choice, and that was Chelsea and Jose Mourinho because he told me everything that I needed to hear at that moment of my career and he made it happen. The fans were outstanding with me, outstanding. I couldn’t be more grateful. We had a great feeling connection straight away. But of course I’m very competitive and when I was the captain of Arsenal, you dislike all the London clubs.”

How Fabregas ended up at Como

After playing at the highest levels of elite soccer with Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea and AS Monaco, during the 2022-23 season, Fabregas moved to Italy and played for Como in his last season before retiring from professional soccer. When he arrived at Como, he also became a shareholder of the club alongside former Arsenal and Barcelona teammate Thierry Henry.

“I have to say I’m so grateful and lucky because a guy of his experience and me as a young manager, we have to remember he was my coach at Monaco for two, three weeks, but he brought me to the club, so he was already my coach and I look up to him as a player, also as a coach for what he’s done also. And I’m very lucky because when he comes, he’s come to the training room, let’s say four or five times, and of course, he speaks to players. He’s never really given a speech, which one day maybe I would like him to, but for me, he’s constantly texting me before and after every game.”

After he retired, Fabregas immediately became the manager of the Under-23 Como team, a few months before taking the job of the first team, without taking any kind of hesitation.

“I didn’t finish my career the way I dreamed of. Let’s kind of put it this way, and I was just so hungry. I felt so convinced that I wanted to be a coach. I had everything in my head. I was already preparing for the last four years before I retired. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and when you feel so excited about something and you get an opportunity straight away after you finish your career, I took it not knowing the demands of the job, you can have kind of expectations”.

In his first season at Como as caretaker manager, he earned Serie A promotion, and in his first full season in charge, he ended up in 10th place in the standings with the newly promoted team, showing not only a great level of soccer but also developed some young players such as Real Madrid loanee Nico Paz. Despite only coaching Como for less than two seasons, Fabregas immediately attracted interest from multiple clubs like German side Bayer Leverkusen that saw in Fabregas the perfect replacement of Xabi Alonso, who joined Real Madrid in the summer 2025 while Inter also tried to appoint him after the farewell of Simone Inzaghi in the summer but then decided to sign Cristian Chivu after both the manager and especially the club turned down every kind of approach.

Como are owned by the Djarum Group, an Indonesian conglomerate led by brothers Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono, who bought the club back in 2019 with their London-based company, SENT Entertainment. The Hartono brothers have a combined net worth of approximately $48 billion, according to Forbes, and the club is run by Mirwan Suwarso, who represents the ownership at the club.

Now, the expectation is to see Como clinching European spots after an impressive summer of 2025 with their transfer business.

“When in Europe? Hopefully soon. We will give our best. I’m very prudent with my players and my words because we’re very, very young. There are lots of ups and downs with young players, but we’re trying to be consistent,” he said. “Now. We’ve done, let’s say a third of the championship. If we do the same third that we’ve done now in the next two, I’m sure we will do it because we are [on pace for] 72 points. And I think with 72 points you make Europe for sure. But again, it’s all up to us and we need to keep going. We need to keep believing, we need to keep working. This is only the beginning.”

https://www.planetfootball.com/serie-a/cesc-fabregas-managerial-philiosophy-inter-defeat