The Italian club have grown at breakneck speed under the ex-Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder, who has led the side to new heights since bringing the curtain down on his career in Lombardy.

Fabregas helped Como end their 21-year absence from Serie A in 2024 and last season masterminded the club’s first ever qualification for European competition, with admiring glances from afar continuing to grow.

The former Spain star has been tipped for an eventual return to the Premier League, but he did not take kindly to a question about the prospect of one day returning to England and even taking charge at Old Trafford.

Fabregas said: “As you can understand I won’t answer that question because I think that’s not a very nice question.

“I don’t think that shows enough respect to a great footballer and manager like Michael Carrick at the helm of a wonderful Manchester United side.”

Fabregas dismissed talk of a crisis at United, whose arrival at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia represents a “historic day once again for the club, the city of Como and fanbase”.

“Man United is a historical club that I know very, very well,” the Como boss said. “Tomorrow there will be two teams that will try to compete against each other.

“We have so much respect for who they are, for what they do because they have incredible players, good staff.

“I know (United assistant) Steve Holland very well because I worked with him for years at Chelsea and I know Michael has done really well in previous clubs as well.

“Last year he did really well bringing Manchester United back to where they belong, which is the Champions League, for the first time in many years, so not everything is that bad.

“It’s a big honour to host them for the first time in our history.”

Heavy rain is forecast for Wednesday’s meeting on the shores of Lake Como, where Fabregas’ men marked their Champions League debut with a memorable 4-1 win against RB Leipzig.

A 3-2 defeat at Feyenoord followed last week and hosting United is comfortably their biggest European night yet – albeit Fabregas stressed this “is only the start of our development”.

“I arrived here over four years ago as a player and I finished my career here,” he said. “If you see what I saw when I came here and what it is now, it’s completely different.

“It’s not even night and day. It’s like we are in another world and it happened very, very fast.

“That’s why sometimes we need to touch base, be humble, keep doing what we’re doing. There’s a lot to do, a lot to learn.”