It would take five players to replace Fabregas

Arsène Wenger could face a daunting task this summer: How do you replace 19 goals, 19 assists, and general quality and leadership from midfield?

It's still been pretty quiet since I last wrote on this topic, although we did finally hear something, if not much, from Cesc, who sounds to me like he wants to leave.

He claims he has left it in the hands of his manager. So Wenger has probably said something along the lines of, "we're keeping you for at least one more season unless we get the right offer". Cesc is probably hoping now that his old club can give his current one what they want. Publicly, he won't commit either way, which is sensible. If he tells us he loves us and wants to say, then it would make him look so much worse if he did leave. If he says he wants to go, but Barca can't come up with the goods then he won't be too popular around here next season.

It's transpired that there hasn't been an official offer from Barca as of yet, but it could happen soon, as the player they have in their sights clearly wants to join.

Wenger should hope he can get this business done sooner rather than later, because if his captain leaves, I'm thinking it could take the addition of five players to make sure he isn't too badly missed.

The priority perhaps, whether he stays or goes, is a good goalkeeper. We cannot possibly enter another season with any of these clowns in goal.

By my reckoning, we would then need two centre-backs. Ideally, I'd like one of Campbell or Gallas to stay, but I doubt either of them will. We're reportedly looking at Hangelaand again, but with only Djourou and Bartley as backup, I think we'd need someone else signed as backup. Wenger doesn't tend to do loan moves, but this could be a good time to try one if we don't want to pay too much for someone to mostly sit on the bench.

Even if we only sign these three out of my suggested five, a solid defence would mean less burden on the attack, and thus Cesc's contributions in that department SLIGHTLY less important.

Finally, it would probably take two players to replace what Cesc gives us in midfield. Joe Cole is available on a free and might be worth a go. He's injury prone, but much better than any of Nasri, Rosicky, Diaby or Denilson. The sale of one or two of those ineffective four could help fund the transfer of the ideal Cesc replacement - Wesley Sneijder. I can't think of anyone better who'd be available and/or in our price range. The Dutchman could be of a few players keen to leave Inter Milan following Mourinho's departure.

Of course, this will probably all prove to be fantasy. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't realistically see Wenger signing that many players. Hopefully Cesc will stay and it won't be quite so desperate, but I maintain that the goalkeeper and two defenders are still a must.

Sadly, anything less and we would only be delaying Cesc's departure for one more summer.