Tobias Gourlay / 29 July 2010 Free Bet View Market

"Fabregas could match the intensity and the high tempo, and he could provide another variation: the variation with the attacking midfielder who knows the most direct routes to goal and makes sure the team doesn’t get sidetracked in cul-de-sacs of beautiful football."

Last week we looked at the Spanish transfer market and found some of the biggest questions about Barcelona's summer affairs were still to be answered; in particular, there was the one about Cesc Fabregas.

A lot has been said in the subsequent seven days, but not a lot has changed. David Villa told the Sun this week: 'I will do the maximum to get Cesc here.' But Andres Iniesta told the News of the World: 'I hope he wins the title at Arsenal this season. I think that it would be fantastic for everybody.'

What would really be fantastic for everybody would be a resolution. At the time of writing, Betfair's market thinks Fabregas is more likely to stay with Arsenal this season. Such is the London club's stubborn opposition to the move that Barca might do better to concentrate their resources elsewhere. They lost €77 million last season, have a net debt of €442 million and had to take a loan to pay players' wages at the end of June, so they could even think about starting to deal with all of that first.

But what if Fabregas were to come back home to Catalonia in time for the new season? Villa, the other big summer signing, will get a starting slot and he'll be just fine whether it's towards the left, where he was best in the World Cup, or in the middle, where he was quieter when the German and Dutch centre-backs focused their attentions on him. However, the Spanish World Cup squad contained five Barcelona midfielders and forwards (including Villa), who all started at least two matches. Fabregas was also in the squad, but didn't start any of the eventual champions' seven games.

Would he have to ride the pine at the Camp Nou too? Possibly. The fantasy option would be to drop the defensive midfielder, Sergio Busquets, and stick Fabregas into a midfield trio with Xavi and Iniesta, leaving room for three of Villa, Pedro, Bojan Krkic, Leo Messi and, if he stays, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in the forward line. But remember how you don't remember seeing Mesut Ozil in the Spain-Germany World Cup semi-final or Wesley Sneijder in the Spain-Netherlands final? Busquets' exemplary positional sense and man-marking ability took them out of those games. And he also knows how to drop in between the centre-backs (who are the same for Barcelona and Spain) when appropriate, which helps to keep one of them free to start the team's famous passing moves and also to move them wider so that they can better cover the full-backs' forward runs.

Pep Guardiola should consider Busquets indispensable, just as he does Xavi and Iniesta, whose skill-sets are more similar to Fabregas's. Except that the Premier League man surges forward from midfield like neither of them. You might remember him doing it in the World Cup final, just before shooting narrowly wide. Fabregas brought a directness to that team's attacks that had previously been absent and his introduction allowed Xavi to drop deeper, to better survey the field.

Fabregas could do the same for Barcelona, from the start or from the bench. And this, perhaps, is why Guardiola wants him. In Guardiola's first season, his team had a plan that worked - a 4-3-3 plan with a high-tempo style that included an intense pressing game - they stuck to it and they won six trophies. Towards the end of that campaign, there were the first signs - from Juande Ramos's Real Madrid and a couple of others in La Liga and Chelsea in the Champions League - that opponents might be able to frustrate them with an ultra-defensive approach.

In Guardiola's second season, more teams saw that it was possible to give up 75% of possession, similar amounts of territory and not lose, if your defence was organised, compact and hardworking. So Guardiola gave his leading man centre-stage. Messi came in off the right wing for some matches, scored consecutive hat-tricks in a couple of them and started to develop a close relationship with Ibrahimovic. But then the Swede lost form and Jose Mourinho showed it was possible even to win matches on very meagre rations of possession and territory.

Guardiola knew he needed to adapt his plan again, to add variations that could confuse even the best-prepared defence. He tried playing without Ibrahimovic, with three little men--Messi, Bojan and Pedro--in the forward line and that seemed to work. There are other variations too, but, with each one, the intensity and the high tempo are maintained, and these are really the hallmarks of Pep's Team. Fabregas could match the intensity and the high tempo, and he could provide another variation: the variation with the attacking midfielder who knows the most direct routes to goal and makes sure the team doesn't get sidetracked in cul-de-sacs of beautiful football.

That, more than the charming story of the prodigal son returning home, is why Barcelona continue to go after Fabregas. And that commitment to evolutionary progression is why, for Guardiola's third season, Barcelona are the [1.9] favourites to win La Liga again and [4.2] jollies for the Champions League.