Cesc Fabregas has admitted he had no idea Como even fielded a football team when he first spent time in the Italian lakeside town.
Speaking at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, the Spain and Arsenal midfielder-turned-coach described how a club he had been close to without noticing became a project he could not turn down.
“Funnily enough, I’d been to Como a few times on vacation, but I didn’t even know there was a football team here.”
“The Como project started in quite a strange way, because I had a few proposals, but I just felt this was the right decision. Sometimes you’ve just got to follow your gut.”
Read also: Carrick is facing his first big test as Man United boss
The gut call took him from signing for a Serie B side as a player to running the club from the dugout. Como finished fourth in Serie A last season, capping an ascent that reached its peak in September when they marked their first match in European football with a 4-1 home win over RB Leipzig at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia.
The Conte lesson at age 29
Fabregas pointed to one encounter as the turning point of his tactical education, and it did not come under Arsene Wenger or Vicente del Bosque. At Chelsea he found a manager who told him where to pass the ball, and the experience unsettled him.
“The first time I saw that football was changing it was when I met Conte at Chelsea. I was already 29, I had won a lot, but for example Arsene Wenger didn’t work much on tactics at Arsenal, even if he was one of the best in the world. The same is true of Del Bosque. With Conte, I saw this change. He was focused on the details. It was surprising and weighed on me at first, because I couldn’t understand why someone had to tell me where to pass the ball, nobody had ever done that before.”
Antonio Conte was Fabregas’s manager at Stamford Bridge during the Italian’s first stint at Chelsea, when the club won the Premier League in 2016-17.
Read also: ‘They think I’ll always be there’: Lamine Yamal already braced for Ballon d’Or snub
‘How do I want to lose?’
Asked how he prepares his team, Fabregas said the first question he asks himself before kick-off is about the manner of defeat, not of victory.
“The question I ask myself before every game is, how do I want to lose? I want to lose with my ideas. Because if you lose when having changed your identity and ideas, then the defeat is double. Sometimes the opponent is better than you, but meanwhile you learn some lessons, and you play with your philosophy.”
He also conceded he can be prickly on the touchline, and singled out Atalanta’s Gian Piero Gasperini as the kind of experienced colleague whose correction he welcomes.
“There have been some tense exchanges with colleagues, it’s true. I am young and still quite emotional. I hope that when I get it wrong, a more experienced coach will tell me. For example, Gian Piero Gasperini, who I have great respect for. I like to listen to people who know more than me.”
Read also: Yildiz has a price-tag on his back, who will get him?
Como sit eighth in Serie A with 10 points from five matches, three points behind leaders Roma. Their next Champions League fixture is matchday two of the league phase later this month.
Read also: Steve Kerr thinks big without Stephen Curry
