Former Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea ace, Cesc Fabregas, knows a thing or two about football and can clearly spot a good player with ease.
The Spaniard made his name firstly at Arsenal, the Gunners signing him as a teenager from his boyhood club, Barcelona.
In time, Fabregas would make his way back to Camp Nou to play professionally alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, for whom he’d starred with during their time together at Barcelona’s academy, La Masia.
After leaving Barca, he moved back to the Premier League with Chelsea and eventually joined AS Monaco and then Como before hanging up his boots.
It was with the Ligue Un side that he played alongside Aurelien Tchouameni, a player that is now plying his trade at Real Madrid.
As Fabregas recounts in an interview with Relevo, however, things could’ve turned out very differently for the 24-year-old Frenchman.
“Tchouameni is a great player that I know well because we met at Monaco,” he said.
“He often asked me things about signing for a great… So I called a person from Barca to recommend signing him.
“I confessed to them that he was great, but they told me that for financial reasons it was impossible because he cost a lot.”
Unfortunately for the Catalan giants, nothing has really changed for them, and in some respects it could almost be said that things are worse.
Financial Fair Play is hampering their efforts to try and sign the world’s best players, and with that in mind, they’re no closer to getting back to where they belong at the top table of European football – a place where Real Madrid routinely habit.