The will-he-or-won’t-he saga of Cesc Fabregas, where a footballer is torn between two clubs he loves, one club struggles with whether to sell its most important player in a time of upheaval, and another club cries when it can’t have a world-class player for way less than his market value just because they want him like, a whole lot despite being up to their eyeballs in debt, is entering roughly its eightieth year.
Arsenal fans around the world are understandably annoyed by the actions of Barcelona, who seemingly can’t understand why a club wouldn’t want to let their best player and captain, who is on a long-term contract, leave for significantly less than he’s worth.
The venerable Arsenal blogger Arseblogger has coined the pithy phrase “cough up or cock off” to describe his feelings, shared by many gooners, towards the situation. Barcelona should either meet Arsenal’s valuation or find someone else on their shopping list.
Chinese fans attending Arsenal’s Asian tour, meanwhile, have seemingly taken that phrase, chopped it up into tiny bits, and run it through an online translator, coming up with this memorable banner:
Why yes, that does say “Barce pay 40million take Cesc away or go home to wank.” Not the most elegant phrasing perhaps, but it does get the point across rather emphatically.
And for good measure, they burned a Barcelona shirt, too. Because why not?
