EXCLUSIVE: Cesc Fabregas did it all as a player… now the former Arsenal star is using chats with Mikel Arteta and notebook nuggets from Pep Guardiola to fuel his rise to the very top as a manager

• Cesc Fabregas has started his coaching career in Italy with Como Primavera 
• The 36-year-old has played under some of the best managers the game has seen 
• Would Mohamed Salah ‘do the dirty’ on Liverpool by leaving? And what about Man United ‘diving’?: Listen to It’s All Kicking Off, Mail Sport’s new podcast 

Cesc Fabregas scaled the very top of football’s summit as a player. He now finds himself at the foot of that mountain once more, preparing to tackle it as a coach.

The 36-year-old has swapped his boots for tactics boards; 60,000-seater stadiums have been traded for cramped academy grounds, effortless two-hour training sessions replaced with the demands of a twenty-four-seven job. Still, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Fabregas greets Mail Sport at the Konami Youth Development Centre in the northern ward of Affori in Milan – home to Inter’s youth academy.

It is the site of an early test in his nascent career on the touchline, bringing his Como Primavera side, an Under-19 team in Italy’s second tier of youth football, to take on the most promising talent from one of Europe’s biggest clubs in a pre-season friendly on a balmy August afternoon.

It’s a far-cry from the arenas he’s become accustomed too, but it’s a change he is relishing.

Cesc Fabregas has started his career as a head coach, taking charge of Como Primavera

‘It’s obviously different to what I was used to as a player but I think it’s becoming really natural for me,’ he says.

‘I’m getting to know the players, they’re getting to know me, my way of playing, my identity, my ideas. I couldn’t be happier for now.

‘The biggest difference is that before you were told what to do, and now I have to be the one organising everything, setting up and analysing. It’s a twenty-four-seven job. It’s non-stop – a lot of times on the phone, on video calls, in meetings.’

Three weeks in, the long hours show no sign of extinguishing his enthusiasm, nor his passion. Prowling the touchline, the former Chelsea and Barcelona midfielder cuts an animated figure, invoking images of his former tutors Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola.

He is vocal and hands-on with his players, pulling his left back to one side to relay instructions, and booms his commands to the far touchline throughout the 90 minutes. It’s all captured by a film crew who are currently following Fabregas, documenting his first footings in the world of management. He appears to be revelling in his new role – and his players are too.

‘For me the most important thing is that they are buying into my idea,’ he says. ‘That I can convince them that what we are trying to do is the right way to do it. Working with the young players is a real pleasure.

‘It’s also an interesting challenge for me and a new thing because at their age I was already in the Arsenal first team. And I never really went through this process from 16 to 18 that they used to say was a really important process. I was straight away brought up into a first-team set up.

‘It’s good for me to see also, and work with players who are going through this process that I never did.’

Fabregas reached the pinnacle as a player, lifting the World Cup (right) and several other major honours (with Premier League trophy, left)

What Fabregas was exposed to during his career was a wealth of knowledge handed down from some of the game’s most notable tacticians.

He would collect these nuggets in a notebook, what today he describes as his ‘trophy’, cultivated from years of harvesting hints and tips from the very best.

He has had messages of support from his former mentors and team-mates ahead of this latest step – including from Gunners duo Mikel Arteta and Edu. The pair are driving change at the Emirates, and Fabregas is a keen observer, given the parallels with his current club.

Fabregas insists that he has his fire back after switching the pitch for the dugout

‘I had chats with Mikel, also with Edu,’ he says. ’That’s always a positive thing to have because what they are trying to build with young players, a new era into the club, it’s what we are kind of trying to do also in Como.

‘We are probably the youngest team in the league so it’s also interesting to hear their advice on what they are trying to build and what we are trying to build. There is always room for improvement and for learning.’

That thirst for knowledge is clear with Fabregas. Last season he threw himself into studying towards his UEFA coaching A license while also juggling the dying embers of his playing career with Como in Serie B.

It was a much-needed distraction as his desire to play dwindled.

‘Obviously the love for the game never goes away but I was feeling that I didn’t have the same fire that I used to have before,’ he says.

‘The training sessions, I wasn’t really enjoying them anymore and I always said the day that I wake up and I don’t feel the same way, the same passion going into the session, that you don’t enjoy the football, it was time to go and to try something else.

‘But I’m blessed and I’m happy that I found my passion very quickly.’

Fabregas’s standing in the game naturally brings with it a heightened sense of expectation and the action on the pitch only serves to fuel it.

The 36-year-old is calling on the wisdom of his former bosses, including Pep Guardiola

Fabregas has spoken to Mikel Arteta and Arsenal sporting director Edu since moving into management

A standout performance has seen Como Primavera blow away their top-flight opposition with a comfortable 4-1 win. It’s a display that has matched the passion and flair shown by the World Cup winner in his technical area.

Among his newly-assembled backroom staff – which includes former Wigan coach Ashvir Singh Johal – there is already consensus that this is a man destined for big things. Fabregas acknowledges as much himself.

‘I want to go to the very top. That’s obviously my goal,’ he says. ‘Every time I do something I do it with a lot of heart, great mentality and this will never change.

‘I lost a bit of that fire inside of me in the last days of my career. Now, when I’m on the bench, I feel things that I remember when I was young. Everything is back. All my fire, everything that goes around the coaching side is bringing me feelings that I had lost in the last one or two years, and that makes me the happiest.’

The ascent has begun.

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