Cesc Fabregas vs Liam Brady – Who is Arsenal’s most gifted midfielder of all time?

FFC columnist Teabag starts the first of a three part "Who's the greatest" series between two Arsenal legends either past or present.

Arsenal have been blessed over the years with great central midfield players, but comparisons are being made between two players whose careers span 30 years, Liam Brady and Cesc Fabregas.

At a time when footballers come from all over the world to play in the Premiership, Liam Brady was regarded as a foreigner back in the 70s. With his long, straggly hair Brady was from a new generation of players when he made his début at 17 against Birmingham City. Fabregas too was of a new generation of player; young overseas imports who earn obscene amounts of money at an early age. But Brady and Fabregas both had one thing in common; the football world knew they would be greats from day one.
The burning question is who is the greatest?

Liam Brady

Brady was without doubt the star in a very average Arsenal side; he pulled the strings with his cultured left foot, spraying 80 yard passes around the pitch, he could and often did win games single handily. When Brady played, Arsenal played. The greatest shame was that Arsenal never really realised what they had on their hands and if they chose to add to the team by bringing in with a couple of world class players, who knows what they could have achieved. Brady decided in 1979 that he would give Arsenal one more season because he wanted to test himself against the world's elite and in the early 80s that meant Serie A. He was transferred to Juventus and helped them win two Championships and it is a credit to his character that in his last ever game for them, knowing he was to be transferred to make way for Michelle Platini, he stepped up and scored the winning penalty to clinch the title for The Old Lady. Brady could, and should, have had more success at international level but he fell foul to Jack Charlton's long ball tactics.

Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas is a record breaker. He was Arsenal's youngest debutant and goal scorer all before his 17^th birthday. It could be said that he was lucky to be born in an era when skilful players are protected and he that he plays for a manger that had confidence in his ability at an early age. But to be honest, Fabregas would have been a great player no matter when or, for whom he played for. He too, is a star in an Arsenal side, but unlike Brady, Fabregas's Arsenal is full of world class players, but on his day, he shines the brightest. There are very few similarities in style between Brady and Fabregas, with the young Spaniard being more similar in style to Bradys successor at Juventus, Platini. With his low centre of gravity he prefers a short passing game and, like Platini, this season he has added goal scoring to his game. The only way you can truly measure how good you are is against you peers and never was this more apparent than when Arsenal played Juventus in the Champions League in 2006. The build-up to the game was all about the return of Patrick Vieira, but by the time the game was over all the talk was how the apprentice had surpassed the master. Fabregas so far had limited success on the international scene but he has plenty of years ahead of him yet.

Result

Who is the greatest? At this moment in time I would have to plump for Brady as he has fulfilled his potential and succeeded at the highest level, but these two can only be judged when Fabregas finishes his career.