I understand why some people are not satisfied with the signing of Fabregas at that particular moment, but you can see why it was the right thing to do if you look at the long term. Honestly, we probably could have benched Fabregas for the entire 11/12 and 12/13 season and we wouldn't have been a genuinely worse team without him. Surely some stats would be different, and the current gap in La Liga would probably be different, but the overall quality of our game and the team wouldn't be much worse than it is now. Heck, there are some people who'd go even further than that. If that's the way you look at it, then sure, we didn't need him in the first place. But if you look at the long term, you'll see that Xavi is closer to retiring with each season, and one day we'll need another top level midfielder to hold an important place in the team, even if he's not a direct replacement for Xavi's style/position. And what better choice is there than a young Catalan La Masia-grown player who spent the meantime bossing the EPL midfield and gaining tons of experience there, and is considered one of the top midfielders in the world? And is itching to come back and loves the club? Seriously, though, the signing was the right move to make, and even though its timing might be strange to some, it was well executed. Instead of buying him several years later, probably at a higher price, we saved some money and get to have him adapt slowly but surely over the course of a few seasons, while Xavi is still here. What Fabregas does now and how he performs now is much less relevant than how he will perform and what level he'll be at once Xavi is completely out of the picture. That's not to say that he is allowed to or should play badly now, of course. But he's here to stay, he won't be leaving. His long-term development and his future in the starting 11 is a far greater goal than the impression he makes in his first season or two, while still finding a place next to Iniesta and Xavi.
..seriously, I only do it when I'm talking about transfers and after I read how Cesc is better than Ozil because he is catalan and from La Masia(though this is not stopping many of our players of 16 years from leaving to England for salaries 10 times bigger) I was even more stimulated. Also, how many times have I mentioned Mou before? My memory is not as good as yours.
