Cesc Fabregas defends Como recruitment strategy as ex-Chelsea star under pressure for signing Spanish players instead of young Italians

Fabregas defended Como's strategy to recruit a host of Spanish players instead of promoting young Italian talents by claiming that he is better familiar with the Spanish market as they have "struggled to find" Italian talent.

Como have made 11 signings in the transfer window this summer, but 29-year-old Luca Mazzitelli, who joined from Frosinone, is the only Italian among them. Fabregas has opted to bring in a contingent of Spanish players, with Jesus Rodriguez, Alvaro Morata and Alex Valle among them. New Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso has complained about the lack of promising homegrown talent being given the opportunity to shine in Serie A and Como's foreign focus seems to reflect the issue. 

Fabregas was grilled about the apparent lack of faith in Italian players, but he said he has not been able to find many young talents within his price range, with the most promising picking the Serie A's top teams over them.

"It's difficult. You look at us, I'm not talking about the others, but six or seven Spaniards have arrived, but I personally, together with the director, have tried to bring in as many Italians as possible," he said. "I swear to you: we analysed, we saw which players we could bring in to raise the level of the team, even young ones, but it was an incredible effort. The top Italian player plays for Inter, for Juve, and this level is more difficult for us.

"It's difficult for the game we want to play. We can start talking about the youth sector, I don't talk much about mentality because I don't know the dynamics here at other clubs well, but we haven't found the right space to bring Italians into our environment. We hope to find them for the future, we continue to look. If you look at the Primavera, we're trying to push hard to bring in, invest in, and train 15-16-year-olds in our own way."

He added: "I know the Spanish market much better, I feel confident because the Spanish talent right now, especially the players we're signing, is strong. There's so much potential there, but if I had to choose between an Italian and a Spaniard, I'd always go with the former, but we need to figure out how to find him or whether we need to train him for the future. If we have to go to a higher level to bring him towards our world, it's difficult. I'm no one to say what the problem is, but when I say we've struggled to find Italian talent, it's the truth."

Como are off to a strong start in Serie A after beating Lazio in their opening game and will be out for a second victory when they meet Bologna on Saturday.