Vicenzo Montella confirms everything we already know about the defensive frailties of Cesc Fabregas.

Cesc Fabregas has been linked in recent weeks with a move to AC Milan after finding himself out of Chelsea’s starting line-up under new boss Antonio Conte. Vicenzo Montella has ruled out the signing as does not believe he can play an important role.

Many of us watched Fabregas literally walz back into the Premier League at Chelsea two years ago with everything going his way. He formed a successful partnership with Nemanja Matic in the heart of our midfield, he clicked instantly with Diego Costa with an almost telepathic understanding and played an instrumental role in our first title for five years.

Last season however was a very different story as Fabregas struggled to come to terms with what he was being asked to do in that position. His first season back was very different in the fact that Chelsea seemed to overpower teams, dominate the ball and had everything their own way for the first half of the season. The following year, Chelsea struggled to repeat their exploits, became overrun themselves and Fabregas playing as one of two deep-lying midfielders struggled to cope.

Fabregas is not the quickest by any stretch of the imagination and his defensive attributes leave a lot to be desired. You cannot fault his effort and his work rate but it became clear last year that we needed an alternative option – N’Golo Kante.

Nemanja Matic suffered tremendously as a result as he had to try and cover the ground left exposed by Fabregas and his own personal form took a turn for the worse also. This was compounded by the clubs decision to sell Ramires in the January transfer window, a decision I will never ever understand.

So to Vicenzo Montella and his response to reports that he would be interested in a move for Fabregas in the January transfer window. When asked of a move he re-iterated how many of us feel about Fabregas having watched him week in, week out for two years:

“We need a player with Montolivo's characteristics, someone who knows how to play in a midfield of two. Fabregas does not have these characteristics" - Source: ESPN.

Despite his frailties in defensive areas, I personally still believe that Cesc Fabregas can play another integral role at Chelsea this season under Antonio Conte. As the Manager still searches to find the right solution with his players, Cesc Fabregas offers him the option of Andrea Pirlo at Juventus , who became instrumental for Conte. With a freedom to roam and play his passes, with runners off the ball out wide and ahead of him, Fabregas can still produce moments of magic as we have seen at times this season. Who could forget the pass of the season to Diego Costa for his goal against Watford?

There is plenty of debate and opinion that Cesc Fabregas does not have a future at Chelsea beyond this season. I beg to differ.