Tag Archives: Nasri

Nasri to Arsenal? Yeah, right…

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According to reports in L’Équipe, Roberto Mancini may offload Samir Nasri this summer because he has been unhappy with the Frenchman’s performances since he joined the club.

Nasri scored 6 goals and made 9 assists last season, which, while not terrible, is clearly not as good as he managed during his last season at Arsenal. Although not officially transfer listed, L’Équipe claim that City would be willing to listen to offers for the 24-year-old, despite only having signed him from us last summer.

This news has led to a ridiculous report in The Metro which claims that Nasri is now a potential target for Arsenal as Arsène Wenger remains one of his biggest fans.

The fact that The Metro even published that article is beyond stupid and shows how much their journalist and sports editor (who conveniently are not named on the article and therefore cannot be shamed) know about football. If there is one thing I know for sure about transfers, it’s that Nasri will never return to Arsenal. If I were to win the lottery, I would put all my money on it for several reasons:

1) Nasri’s behavior when he left Arsenal was absolutely disgraceful. He went from Hero to Zero in the eyes of Arsenal fans faster than you can say “what a tw*t”. Not only was his behavior towards the end of his career in North London completely out of order, but he continues to make snide comments about the club and has shown no attempt to apologise to Arsenal fans. I don’t think that there is a single Gooner who would want him back in our team. His form for City doesn’t exactly justify his wage bill and I would argue that Arsenal did pretty well to get £25 million for a player in the last year of his contract.

2) Arsenal have already signed Lucas Podolski, and we have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Gervinho and Ryo Miyaichi all on the wing. Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta have been fantastic in midfield while (hopefully) Jack Wilshere is also returning from injury; we don’t need Nasri back and I wouldn’t want him in the team.

3) Even if we got past the fact that Arsenal fans hate his guts and that we don’t need him, there is no way in hell that Arsene Wenger would agree to pay his astronomical wages and Nasri would never agree to a wage cut. He can just be another one of those City players that agrees to go out on loan, safe in the knowledge that Sheikh Mansour will continue to pay their wages until the end of their contracts.

4) Even Manchester City aren’t stupid enough to sell Nasri after one season. His form picked up once he actually got himself off the bench and it wouldn’t make any sense for them to let him leave this early into his contract. It’s not like they need the money.

5) City are Premier League champions. From a footballing point of view, the only reason that Nasri would want to leave is if he wanted to play and try and win in a different league (i.e Germany, Italy or Spain).

Rant over, so now Arsenal fans, if they were ever worried at any point, can sleep comfortably, safe in the knowledge that that money grabbing idiot won’t be coming back.

(Because I had a go about it earlier, this article is by Ben Montague.)

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Manchester City vs Arsenal: Match preview/injury news

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Arsenal travel to Eastlands this afternoon to face Manchester City in a game which is extremely important for both teams.

City need to bounce back from failing to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League and losing to Chelsea on Monday; They could even start the game in second place if Manchester United beat QPR in an earlier kick-off.

However, the Blues have won all 7 of their home-games this season and will be looking to further extend that record.

Bearing in mind Arsenal’s current form (we are on an 8-game unbeaten run in the league), 4th place is well within our targets. A win would prove that we are right up there with the “best” and show that we could potentially push for the title. Chelsea dropped two points against Wigan in yesterday’s late kick-off, so 3 points at Eastlands would move us up into fourth by 2 points.

We won 3-0 at City last season, but you have to remember that this is a very different team to the one that we face last year. Mancini will surely give Samir Nasri a start against his old club, even if he doesn’t start for City on a regular basis; I think we can take solace in the fact that Nasri doesn’t get much game-time at City, and has already been knocked out of the Champions League. Gael Clichy is suspended following two unnecessary yellow cards against Chelsea last week,and Kolo Toure is unlikely to feature.

An interesting fact that I have just found is that he home team has failed to score in the last four matches in all competitions between these two clubs. However, I expect this run to be broken tomorrow; There is almost no way that we will keep a clean sheet against City. We must instead rely on out-scoring them.

Injury news:

Arsenal

Yet again, Arsenal will need to play with four centre-backs because we have no fit full-backs. Kieran Gibbs is expected back in a few weeks, but André Santos has been ruled out for 3 months and neither of Sagna and Jenkinson have featured for a while.

Jack Wilshere is recovering well, but isn’t expected back until February, while Diaby is apparently pretending that he is Owen Hargreaves.

To view a full Arsenal injury list click here. 

Manchester City

Micah Richards returns to the squad having missed a few weeks with a calf problem, but Pablo Zabaleta will have to move to left-back in the absence of the suspended Gael Clichy and the injured Aleksandar Kolarov. City have no other injuries…

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Wenger to lure disheartened Manchester City midfielder back to the Emirates

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Reports are emerging this morning that suggest Arsène Wenger will attempt to bring Manchester City and ex-Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri back to the Emirates in January, with an offer of higher wages and the promise of regular Champions League football.

Manchester City crashed out of the Champions League in epic style last night, despite beating Bayern Munich 2-0 at Eastlands. Following the game, Nasri blamed their failure to qualify for the knockout round on a lack of investment in their first-team players.

Arsène Wenger is known for splashing the cash when he feels it is necessary, including offering players ridiculous wages. This can clearly be seen as Wenger spent a whole £1 million on a new right back (Carl Jenkinson), a world record £3 million on South Korean captain Park Chu Young, and picked up Maroune Chamakh last summer on a free transfer. It has even been suggested that Wenger may offer Nasri £150 a week and a lifetime supply of Kit Kats, making him by far the highest-earning player in the world.

Unlike with the loss of Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal fans have taken Nasri’s decision to force his way out of the club in the summer relatively well; I think that we all know that he did it for the right reasons, definitely not just for more money. The good news is that Samir seems to have realised the error of his ways and wants to move back to a club that still loves and adores him; He no doubt will welcomed back to the Emirates with open arms when he returns just after the New Year.

Disclaimer: This article is clearly a joke. There is no way that Nasri could work his way back into the Arsenal team given the fantastic form of Chamakh and Andrey Arshavin.

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Fabregas speaks out on injury-plagued final season at Arsenal

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Speaking to Fifa.com, Cesc Fabregas has hit out at suggestions that his head was not in the right place during his final season at Arsenal.

There are many pundits, and Arsenal fans, who believe that Fabregas was not focused and/or completely committed to the club because he knew that his future was in Barcelona.

Cesc argues that only repetitive injuries meant that he did not reach the lofty heights that we had witnessed the season before. He was 100% committed to Arsenal and did not even think about leaving for Barcelona.

“Not for one moment [was I not committed to Arsenal], because I never knew what the future held.

“I was an Arsenal player and under contract until 2014, so I wasn’t thinking of leaving.

“Some people claimed that , just because I didn’t play very much and had a lot of injuries, that it was a bad season for me. I disagree. I still scored nine goals and made 20 assists.

“However, what is true is that I had one injury after another, and every time I got back to full fitness, something else would happen and I’d have to start again from scratch. For all that, mentally I was 100 per cent focused on Arsenal.”

The fact that Cesc was going to leave for Barcelona was inevitable, and I think it is impossible for him to argue that returning to his childhood club wasn’t at least in the back of his mind. However, I don’t doubt that he was (somewhat if not fully) committed to the club during what turned out to be an injury-plagued final season in North London.

The Cesc transfer saga is water under the bridge as far as I am concerned. Analysing all the small details of what was going through his head is unnecessary. We were all prepared to lose our star player at the beginning of the summer because we had, or so we thought, Samir Nasri to step-in and take over the creative midfield role. The Nasri move to City was a lot harder to take, and he was subsequently boo’d by Arsenal fans when he returned to the Emirates in the Carling Cup on Tuesday evening.

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Walcott to extend Arsenal contract

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Theo Walcott’s current Arsenal contract expires in 2013, but the winger has finally said that he plans to sit down and negotiate a new deal.

Arsène Wenger is desperate to avoid a repeat of the situation which saw Samir Nasri move to Manchester City and, with Robin van Persie stalling his contract negotiations, Walcott’s comments will come as a huge relief.

It has perviously been suggested that Theo may use his current contract situation to force a move to Italian giants Juventus, but these rumours were quickly dismissed by his agent.

Speaking to The People, Walcott also said that the Gunners are looking to move past their poor start to the Premier League campaign, insisting that the mood within the Arsenal camp remains positive following our 1-0 win over Marseille in mid-week:

“I will listen to what Arsenal have to say.

“Hopefully we will sit down with the club soon and talk things over. 

“The team morale at Arsenal is great – the best it’s ever been.

“To be honest, we have forgotten about the first few games. There is no point in dwelling on it.

“All we can do now is look at what is coming up. And it is looking very positive at the moment. Everyone needs to be alive at what is going on during the game.

“In the Champions League, you want to at least draw the away games, but we managed to sneak it in the end.

“We were very solid at the back and we need to do that more often – dig deep and win games 1-0. It was nice to see that in Marseille.

“Now, hopefully, we can start climbing the Premier League.

“This can still be a big season for us, although we are not looking too far ahead.”

Theo and Andrei Arshavin will probably extend their deals before the new-year, but don’t expect to hear any news on Robin van Persie’s contract until the summer. Thomas Vermaelen signed a new long-term contract last week, as well as two of our young emerging talens (Connor Henderson and Sanchez Watt), but Wenger faces a long wait for RvP’s decision.

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RvP to be offered huge wage increase as Anzhi Makhachkala confirm interest

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Arsène Wenger looks set to offer Robin van Persie a huge wage increase as part of a new 4-year contract as we fight to keep hold of our star striker.

Van Persie’s current Arsenal contract expires in 2013, and our captain has indicated that he will not discuss a contract extension until the end of the season, sparking much speculation that he may leave the club as early as January. We have already lost both Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy to Manchester City because they refused to sign new contracts, and Wenger needs to get this sorted out as soon as possible to avoid a similar situation with our Dutch maestro.

“I still have almost two years left, so for the moment that’s fine. I’m happy with my contract. I can’t look into the future. I can’t see us talking now because we are so busy.”

Up until recently Wenger would only offer 1-year contract extensions to players over the age of 30. However, the fact that we have given Mikel Arteta a four-year contract (he turns 30 next year) would suggest that Wenger is changing his age policy. Wenger also looks set to break the clubs current pay-structure by offering Van Persie a £20,000 increase to £90,000 a week. This is still nowhere near what he would earn at Man City or Barca, but will hopefully be enough to keep him in North London.

Speaking last week, Ivan Gazidis (Arsenal’s Chief Executive) confirmed that the club would be more lenient in terms of the current wage-structure in order to keep our best players:

‘We don’t have a salary ceiling, we have a sophisticated business model that looks at what we need to do to compete today, what we need to do to compete next year and in five years. And I am comfortable we will be able to compete in whatever environment is created.’

RvP has been linked with a big-money move to Manchester City in recent weeks, but Roberto Carlos (manager of Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala) has confirmed his interest in the Dutch striker, albeit on a long list of world-class targets. [continued page 2]

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Wenger denies van Persie transfer rumours

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Arsène Wenger has acted quickly to quash rumours that Robin van Persie will be sold to Manchester City in January. Van Persie has two years left on his Arsenal contract, but does not seem to be in a particular hurry to discuss a contract extension, suggesting that it would be better if he were to wait until next summer to negotiate a new deal.

RvP’s comments have only furthered speculation that City will step-up their interest in the Dutch international as a replacement for out-of-favour Carlos Tevez.

Wenger is not exactly a big fan of Manchester City’s transfer policies and clashed with City boss Roberto Mancini after they openly pursued Samir Nasri over the summer (eventually buying him for £24 million). Nasri, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré and Gaël Clichy have all moved to City in recent years, but Wenger has made it clear that Van Persie will not be joining them at Eastlands:

“There is nothing to say really. Anybody who wants to sign one of our players, everybody has my phone number and can call me.

“I never said I was unhappy with Man City but I don’t know why we speak about transfers. I will never answer any more. Robin is under contract until 2013. This is a story created to create a story. There is no truth in it. Why should we sell players in January?

“Man City already have problems because they have too many strikers, they pay half of the league for them to play away somewhere. Why should they want to buy strikers? It’s very difficult to understand.”

Wenger then hit out at City over the loan of Emmanuel Adebayor to Spurs, suggesting that the Manchester club should not be allowed to subsidise their players wages when they loan them out to other Premier League clubs. Le Boss feels that it  gives City an unfair advantage by giving them an extra hold on the competition. No doubt, he (and the Arsenal fans) will feel increasing resentment towards Adebayor if he scores against us tomorrow at White Heart Lane.

“I know the salary of Adebayor. I don’t know who pays it but somebody must pay it. I don’t agree with the rules but my job is to adapt to the rules. If the Premier League wants my opinion, I will give them my opinion with pleasure.”

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Two or three players will join Arsenal before transfer deadline

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Arsène Wenger has revealed that he believes that Arsenal will challenge for the Premier League title if he is able to bring in two or three more players before the close of the transfer window on Wednesday evening. As things stand the squad is threadbare, with significant injuries and suspensions adding to the setback of losing Cesc Fabregas, Gaël Clichy and now Samir Nasri. We face Manchester United on Sunday afternoon, with the likely outcome bring that we will have taken only 1 point from our opening three Premier League matches. I realise that I am being slightly pessimistic, but does anybody really believe that we are going to beat United?… I hope I will be proved wrong.

Wenger has already suggested that he is in the market for another striker (as it looks increasingly likely that Nicklas Bendtner will finally leave), and yesterday Bolton manager Owen Coyle confirmed that we have made a (rather low) bid for Gary Cahill.

Speaking Arsenal.com Wenger confirmed that he will continue to do his utmost to ensure that the players we need are be brought in over the next few days.

“It is important [to strengthen Arsenal's squad] because we will lose players in January with players going to the African Nations Cup,”

“We lose Gervinho and Chamakh together so, first of all, it is important to strengthen up front. It is important that we find one midfielder and one defender as well. So we are still short of three bodies.

“I am anxious because I want to do it [bring in new players] and I try everything to do it.

“[However] We are dependent on the desire of the people who have the players to sell the players.

“I will try to strengthen the squad in depth because at the moment we are a bit short number-wise, but if we get two or three players in we have the quality to challenge.

“I am confident as well because we have some good young players who can make a big step very quickly.”

One thing I had forgotten, but that must definitely not be overlooked, is the importance of the players who will be missing during the African Cup of Nations. Not only will we be without Gervinho (and Maroune Chamakh who, lets face it, we can live without…), but also Alex Song. Hopefully we will have a strong enough squad to cope during the few weeks that they are unavailable.

I really hope that Wenger makes good on his plans to sign new players. We need a new striker because in my opinion Chamakh (despite starting his Arsenal career well) is a waste of space, and we are pretty sure that Bendtner is leaving. A new central-midfielder is a must now that Nasri and Fabregas have gone, and a the fact that we need a new centre-back is obvious.

5 days and counting; anything could happen.

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Frimpong loves Arsenal but two ex-Gunners don’t…

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Emmanuel Frimpong has previously stated his desire to be a Gunner for his entire career. He has shown determination and desire on the pitch in his few appearances in an Arsenal shirt, and there is undoubtedly plenty of promise surrounding our young star.

Frimpong’s heated discussion with celebrity Gooner Piers Morgan shows that he has a fiery temper – Piers told Frimpong that he needs to “calm down” and our young midfielder fired insults at Morgan in retaliation. You’ll be glad to know that they are good friends now. Frimpong tweeted the following two days ago: “@piersmorgan Ur my bestest Friend If I ever score ill dedicate it to you :) *hugs*.” He is almost like a fan – his tweets show full support for Arsenal, not to mention his hilarious reply to Jack Wilshere:

Like most Arsenal fans, Frimpong has shown disdain towards Nasri given his acrimonious departure, even when his mate Wilshere gave support to our departing Frenchman.

On the other hand, two of our former stars have delivered parting blows to the Emirates faithful. Samir Nasri seems pretty happy to have left Arsenal, because he must have had a really tough time at the club. He speaks of Arsenal as if he barely played, the fans hated him and his career went downhill the moment he signed for us.

Nasri said the following about us, the fans:

“The (City) fans are really passionate. It reminds me a little of Marseille. Arsenal have good fans but not so passionate since they moved to the Emirates from Highbury.”

Fair enough, he’s allowed to have his own view on the matter… but hang on, didn’t Nasri join in 2008? And didn’t we leave Highbury in 2006? Hmmm. Also, I’m pretty sure Samir ignored the awesome atmosphere during some of our great games last season – Man Utd, Tottenham (yeah we lost, but the fans were amazing), Barcelona, Chelsea etc. But even if our support isn’t up to Nasri’s standard, why should he have a go at us the moment he leaves? And why compare the fans to the Highbury era that he never even witnessed?!

Further to that, Samir mentioned his appreciation of the Man City fans when we thumped them 0-3 last season. Yep, that was the game in which he scored the opener and celebrated like a madman. And yet, he uses that match as a reason to move to City! Odd.

“I remember when we played against City, when we lost 3-0, the crowd was amazing. That is what I want. When you play football it is for a good atmosphere.”

He says “you play football for a good atmosphere.” Change atmosphere for wages and then it makes more sense.

Nasri also spoke of his frustration that the move to City took so long. Again, he was saying he was desperate to leave – not something that will endear him to the Arsenal fans.

However, the real sting in the tail with this whole scenario can be summed up by one picture. Another ex-Gunner is said to have lured Nasri to City, and that ex-Gunner’s affiliation with the Manchester club must rile a lot of our fans. He is an Arsenal legend, so I just don’t understand why he is working for City! Probably the money actually…

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£35 Million German Star heading to Emirates?

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It has been reported that Bastian Schweinsteiger may be making is way to the Premier League. With the departure of Fabregas and Nasri, Wenger has said he will look to bolster the squad before the end of the transfer window. Wenger has stated that the main areas he will be trying to improve are defence and midfield, with the latter being the priority.

The Bayern Munich midfielder is clearly the sort of player that Arsenal fans have been longing for. We need experience, ready made quality that will fit straight into our first team now. Yes, we have bought the likes of Miyaichi and Chamberlain, who will most probably be great players in a few years, but at the moment, we need to keep our credibility. The 35 million price tag is by far the largest that has ever been associated with Wenger since his time at the club. But with the large amount of funds available from the transfers of Cesc and Samir, it is not as if Wenger does not have the money.

The 27 year old has played over 250 games for Bayern since 2002, and 88 appearances for his country. He is a quality player that would shine in the Premier League. But what are the chances that he will actually come? To be honest, I’m not sure. My first instincts tell me that the chances are pretty poor. Why would he want to come to Arsenal? He has enjoyed a lot of success with Bayern in the German League. Manchester United were said to be interested in the German international, yet nothing materialised there. However, last season was not great for Bayern. They finished third in the league and risk losing a few of their star players. Perhaps Schweinsteiger wants a new challenge and wants to play in the best league in the world. It is a possibility, even if the chances are against us.

Likeliness rating: 2/5

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