After four years and a saga that has gone round in circles time and time again Cesc Fabregas has finally returned to Spain and his boyhood club Barcelona.
Barcelona, current La Liga champions and champions of Europe, players such as Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, where does Fabregas fit in?
With world class players at their disposal it seems almost impossible that Cesc will immediately walk into arguably the best side the world has ever seen. With a quartet of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets or Lionel Messi, I'm not convinced he will get more than 10 starts this season.
Injury to one of these players seems the only way he will get into the starting 11 or if Pep Guardiola decides to rotate his squad to give players a rest, although this did not happen last year and there is nothing to suggest that this policy will change this year.
The likely outcome will be that Fabregas will have to settle for being an impact player. Coming off the bench on the rare occasions that Barcelona are lacking inspiration or need that extra piece of magic. It is a role that he pulled off to very good effect in Spain's World Cup campaign 12 months ago. However he played just 126 minutes in the whole tournament.
Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Milan all showed interest in the unsettled play-maker with any of the four surely a better move as he would walk straight into all of their starting elevens.
However, whether or not Fabregas plays for Barcelona at all over the coming season, Barcelona can take the knowledge of knowing they have already got one over on their rivals Real Madrid in securing his signature - even if he just fulfils the role of bench warmer.
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