EXCLUSIVE: Cesc Fabregas on His Blueprint For Success and His Vision For the Future With Como

Cesc Fabregas is sat on a blue sofa inside Como’s renovated canteen. Behind him is a coffee bar, with a selection of cakes and fruit placed on the right-hand side. Under it are stools adorning the club’s three shirts for this season, each with a Serie A badge on its sleeve. 

The 37-year-old has just been next door in the dining room, holding court at his table and dissecting the morning’s training session with his coaches. 

As he sits down to speak to Destination Calcio he is looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the building work on the new first-team training pitch. Everywhere you look are reminders of just how far this club has come since his arrival in 2022. 

“Two years ago, we didn’t have any of this,’ says the Como head coach. 

“We were training Monday, one place, Tuesday, one place, Wednesday, one place. We didn’t have a restaurant where we can eat together. You finish at three o’clock and you need to go to the first bar or go home to get a sandwich because it’s already too late to have lunch. 

“There are so many things that people don’t know. People don’t see where this club was a year-and-a-half ago and where we are now. We are incredibly lucky to be part of this amazing project where basically it was from zero to now being in Serie A after 21 years.”

While it has taken more than two decades to regain their spot at the top table, Fabregas knows he doesn’t possess the luxury of time as he and his side come to grips with the step up. 

Last year, as assistant head coach, he gave a speech in the dressing room on the back of promotion – telling his players of the hard work and change in level ahead of them. Serie B, he warned, was just the ‘warm up’. 

His squad have acquainted themselves well thus far, though they sit in 15th position and just one point above the relegation places in a congested bottom half. 

They have been praised in defeat on several occasions already, and outperform the majority of Serie A rivals in key areas – including shots for, shots conceded and possession. 

Playing well and not winning is one of the reason Fabregas is choosing to revise his post-season prediction.

“I don’t think it’s a level up. I think it’s a few levels up,” he says. 

“I said it because I really meant it. I really felt that the steps from Serie B to Serie A were very high. That was my feeling, and I still keep saying it today, and I keep repeating it. When I go back to that moment, I was saying it for a reason. 

“It’s proving and it’s showing now that there are a lot of quality teams. You make a mistake last year, it was hitting the post or the ball was going out by two metres. Now you make a mistake and they punish you and it’s a goal. 

“This is the type of level where we are at the moment. We need to be conscious of that and keep working, keep being brave, keep developing our methodology, our style of play and keep growing, which is the most important.”

Growth is something Fabregas is adept at. He did learn from one of the best, after all. It was years of nurturing at Arsenal under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger that saw him become a world-class talent on the pitch.

It is that same level of success he is now looking to achieve in the dugout. He has worked under some of European football’s greatest coaches, and has notebooks full of nuggets he can call upon. All have helped shape his own blueprint, one he is happy to share.

“I think it’s believing in your idea, trying to adapt to the type of players that you’ve got, but be very convinced of what you’re doing,” he says on his approach. 

“Always working to analyse better on what you can get better at. Making my players feel comfortable each game, that we are going the right way, that we’re working towards always getting to higher standards. [It’s] showing that you want to be part of this club, showing the desire. 

“The club is giving me every tool possible to make this happen. We are at the very beginning of everything as a club, as a staff, as a team, to where we want to be in a few years. There’s a way to go to properly show and create what we want to do.”

With club and head coach aligned on the vision for the future, the last piece of the puzzle is the players. 

There has been adversity to overcome – most notably the crippling injury list that had left Fabregas with just one fit central midfielder out of six. 

The fact they haven’t been cut adrift in the table is testament to the strength of character instilled in a squad still learning at this level. 

“The players are following what we’re trying to do, that everyone comes here with the right attitude, with the right face, to be positive and to help everyone,” he says.

“The values, some obviously are non-negotiable; the respect, the attitude, the hunger to come here every day and to show that you want to be part of this. I think I’m finding that.”

As the building work at Como’s Centro Sportivo in Mozatte carries on in the background, drills and tractors are punctuating Fabregas’s words. It’s not just the physical changes that tell the story of this club’s rise, though. 

Asked the biggest change he has noticed during his time at the club? “The mentality. I think this is something that I managed to grow within the club since day one. 

“Before it was about, let’s not lose. Now it’s about going face to face against anyone and try to win every single game.”

Helping him to build that mentality are his trusted old guard. In the summer, Sergi Roberto, Alberto Moreno and Pepe Reina all joined to add experience to Fabregas’s squad. 

Former teammates at international and club level, the 37-year-old now calls on his former colleagues to help him get his message across in the dressing room. 

“To bring some experience is important in difficult moments,” he says. “They can approach certain situations by themselves. I think these players, this is where they have a big role and a big responsibility. 

“You mentioned these three players. I can bet my life on them. This is why I don’t like to intervene too much. 

“The players that come here from my side have to be people that I can trust blindly. I think with these three guys, I do – for quality, for what they bring on the pitch, and also for what they bring outside the pitch.

“They are humble people, hard working. They take responsibility for their actions. They lead the team in difficult moments. They are leaders. That’s why we thought of bringing them here, and we were lucky that we could achieve it.”

If Como are lucky to have them, so is Serie A. Italy’s top flight once again appears to be headed in the right direction, with interest around the globe mounting. 

It makes it easier for Fabregas and his club to attract some of the game’s most recognisable names.

“The league is getting better,’ says the Spaniard.  “It’s a league where you can learn a lot, where a lot of teams do different things to what we see in Europe. 

“A lot of people from around Europe, around the world are interested in watching and there are a lot of top teams.

“Eight teams now are in Europe. That shows you also the good level of the league in terms of quality. So I’m sure that it will keep growing.”

It is no coincidence that Fabregas and Como are aware of the number of teams qualifying for continental competitions in Italy. 

The club have made no secret of its ambition and after rocketing from Serie C to the top flight in the space of just three years, their aspirations need refreshing.

“One step at a time,’ says the head coach. “Of course, in my head, in [Club President] Mirwan Suwarso’s head, in [Sporting Director] Charlie Ludi’s head, we have a plan, we have an idea.

“We are much more advanced than where we thought we would be a year ago. But you need to take the right steps at the right times. I’m not scared to talk about [European qualification] in the sense of hopefully, if we keep working this way, in a few years we can make it. 

“But again, the pitch is where you have to speak.”

It is time for the football to do the talking.