SOCCER:CESC FABREGAS completed his move to Barcelona, but not before shedding a tear of gratitude to Arsene Wenger and Arsenal. Not only did the former captain admit he was unable to tell Wenger how he felt as emotion got the better of him when he bade farewell, he also departed having signed a buy-back option.

For all the recriminations that have surrounded this deal, bridges were not burned. Should Fabregas ever leave Barcelona Arsenal will have first refusal on their former captain. Fabregas departs calling Wenger the best man he has met in football and insisting that Jack Wilshere, whom he tipped as a future England captain, and Aaron Ramsey have the talent to take control of Arsenal’s midfield.

The long saga officially came to an end yesterday when Fabregas signed a five-year deal at Barcelona. The European champions will pay Arsenal two instalments of €14.5 million before the end of September, plus a further €5 million in incentives, payable if they win the La Liga twice or the Champions league once in the next three years. Arsenal will also receive €1 million a year after Fabregas agreed to lower his salary from €4 million to €3 million to facilitate the deal. Wenger called it “an affair of the heart”.

Fabregas described the move as a childhood dream but said there were “mixed emotions”. He admitted the frustration of winning nothing in the past six years weighed heavily and that he had been unable to articulate his gratitude at his last meeting with Wenger without crying.

“I spoke to (Wenger) on Friday to say goodbye and got very emotional because he has been like a father figure,” Fabregas said. “I couldn’t even talk when I wanted to say how grateful I was for what he has done to me, so I had to send a message afterwards saying thanks for everything. If it was not for him I would not be here today to live my dream. I will never have enough words to say how grateful I am. I went from being a boy to a man and they gave me absolutely everything in football.

“At Arsenal, there were finals and semi-finals but we always lacked that little extra push to win something. That was hard to take. It was not that we didn’t win titles it was that we kept going through the same routine, the same things happening to us and us messing up. I gave everything for Arsenal but it didn’t show in the (trophy) cabinet because I only won one FA Cup. That is the biggest regret I will have in my career – not to be able to lift a trophy as Arsenal captain.” Fabregas said he was sad at the way he left.

“I am sorry I couldn’t say anything for the last two and half months, Arsenal would not allow me to talk to them,” he said. “I was disappointed and upset about that but it had to be like that. I was very, very sad to be leaving.”

Wenger’s midfield crisis deepened when Alex Song was handed a three-match ban for his stamp on Newcastle United’s Joey Barton. The Arsenal manager, who has Jack Wilshere (ankle) out of tonight’s Champions League play-off with Undinese, has appealed against the severity of Gervinho’s three-match ban for slapping Barton.

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has appealed for information on the whereabouts of his father, who is believed to have been abducted in his native Nigeria.

Mikel played in Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Stoke despite learning a day previously that his father had gone missing on Friday.