Fabregas: Mourinho, Chelsea told me what I needed to hear

The international break has been enlivened a tad by Cesc Fabregas granting El Pais an extensive interview. Obviously it's not in English, but thanks to the magic of Mr. Google and his amazing Translate Technology, it's decipherable. Kind of:

Q. When did you decide to go and why?

A. I started having the idea after the Copa Del Rey final, when I started thinking that  there might be a change or it might not make sense to continue.

Q. Did you talk to Luis Enrique?

A. No. I informed the club a week after losing the League, from London, in the week off before the World Cup. I called Zubizarreta. And from the answer, I felt I was doing them a favor, it was good for them and for me. I talked to my manager and told him to look for a new team. The offer from Chelsea came and for me it was back to London, the place where I grew up. There was no better way out. I spoke with Mourinho and he told me things I needed to hear, I felt valued, I felt it would be an important part of something important.

There's some other amusing stuff there -- Fabregas admits that if you'd told him five years ago he'd have been playing under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea he wouldn't have believed you, and that he also expects Arsenal fans to understand his decision* -- and Google Translate itself provides some merriment. "Well that flew, right? Does the breastplate? But if that was a huge bullshit! Stupid," says Cesc at one point.

*I don't see why they wouldn't, incidentally. It's not like Arsenal and Chelsea are rivals for serious silverware.

But anyway, the main point is this: Fabregas came to Chelsea to be one of the focal pieces of a Chelsea team that's attempting to re-scale the European and Premier League heights and emulate the great side of the mid-2000s. If Mourinho thinks he's up to it and the player himself is buying in, cool.