Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas insists he will not follow in the footsteps of fellow Spaniard Fernando Torres and join another English team if and when the time comes for him to leave the Gunners.
Last summer Fabregas' former club Barcelona failed with a £35million bid take him back to the Nou Camp and his future continues to be the subject of speculation.
However, one thing the 23-year-old is certain of is that he will not stay in England if he leaves Arsenal - unlike Torres who left Liverpool for Chelsea in a £50million January deal.
"If some day I leave Arsenal it will never be to sign for another English team. I'm very sure," Fabregas, who admits he was surprised by Torres' move, told Spanish magazine Don Balon.
"How it happened, in so few hours, I didn't expect it. I didn't imagine Torres leaving the Premiership, but neither that he would leave in the middle of the season. That said, I believe that it was a good decision."
Fabregas has spoken before of his desire to one day play for Barca, whom he left when he 16 to join Arsenal, again, but is prepared to be patient in his quest for silverware.
Arsenal have failed to win a trophy since clinching the FA Cup in 2005, while in the last three years alone Fabregas' would-be employers Barca have claimed eight trophies and look certain to add at least one more this season.
"You have to have patience and wait for the right moment. The day that I leave Arsenal I will do it with my head, not just 'because'," Fabregas said.
"As well as that, who can be sure that you are going to play in a new team? Or that you will progress. Here I have the great fortune that at a personal level, despite not having won much, I'm doing very well.
"I talk with (Barcelona captain Carles) Puyol and he told me that at 26 he hadn't won anything. Puyol, who has won everything in the football world! Patience and hard work are the most important things in life."
With Arsenal set to finish this season empty-handed yet again, Fabregas was asked what Arsene Wenger's team lack to challenge Manchester United and Chelsea for honours.
A winning mentality and a 30-goal striker were a couple of the ingredients Fabregas believes his side need, saying: "It's difficult. For me it's more a lack of a winning mentality, also of maturity in key moments. We have plenty of quality but lack this bit of confidence.
"The problem is that the team needs to win something. We are missing that ability to say: 'now I know what it is to win and I know what it takes to win'.
"That's what made the Arsenal team of 'The Invincibles' so strong, they knew how to win games, when to dig in, when to attack, they had a special intelligence to read games. Now we are very young."
He added: "What we really lack is a striker who scores 30 goals a season. (Robin) van Persie plays centre-forward but he is more of a playmaker and he has suffered with injuries which has seen him miss a lot of games. If Robin had been fit from the start this season things would have been different."
Source : The Independent 20 April 2011
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