I don't know with Fabregas
We have brought Barkley in which means RLC gets loaned for next year
We have Drinkwater and Bakayoko who are additions to our squad, the latter being unimpressive
I'd actually advocate for starting with a Kante-Fabregas midfield with a front three of Morata-Hazard-Willian/Pedro
That midfield pairing has a fantastic win rate against most teams in both 17/18 and 16/17
It's just people talk about Cesc being defensively poor despite him tracking back and recording a decent tackle rate
His passing is insane, if our attackers had have scored half of the chances from Cesc they would be up there with Kane and Salah in terms of goals, in talking about you Morata. Yes he does get bullied physically but Cesc offers so much to this Chelsea team and he and hazard are our lone conductors for creativity and attacking play.
I don't know how long he has left in him though. He is on 160K a week and getting rid of him would release wages. But he has fought his way back into the Chelsea side and when everyone thought his career was dead, he resurrected it spectacularly. He i think was one of the underrated players of 16/17 with his output in the second half of the year being sublime.
He's a valuable commodity and there are few like Cesc. Teams like United and Arsenal would die to have Cesc in their team, still at his age, because of what he offers going forward. Every time I doubt him he puts any doubt I have away. Which quality teams in Europe outside of England would want Cesc and would give him regular football. He isn't going to return to the national setup, thought admittedly Saul, Iniesta (He's finished), Illara, Koke (Questionable) and Herrera are definitely not better than him (Silva, Busquets, Thiago) are better so he should really be in their squad.
We can't build our squad around him though. He is going into his 30s and admittedly a Cesc, Pirlo type players are rare breeds (Paredas from Roma and sort of Verrati from PSG) . We must be equipped to properly deal with Fabregas's departure so the debate remains
If we continue with a midfield three Kante and Fabregas pick themselves meaning Barkley, Drinkwater or Bakayoko battle for the third. If Baka reverts to his Monaco form which I anticipate he will, Baka needs work on control, passing and shooting, then we will have a very competent midfield three, drinky and Barkley are just really rotation players. If we must use Baka at this stage then I'd have him shielding the back 3, it's an easy role and he did that at Monaco. Build up his confidence Stage by stage and then unleash him. This midfield three obliterated Athletico Madrid and Man United while it held its nerve against City, Liverpool and Arsenal. If we do transition back to the 4-3-3 which conte wants to play with but the squad is incapable thus far, then we could have a dynamic and threatening midfield coupled with the experienced playmaker Cesc at our disposal. But we must prepare for life after Fabregas and that starts now.