The thing is, he knows he can get more at City or Utd, probably £120-150K. He's only got a year left on his contract, so he can sign a pre-contract in January and leave for nothing next summer. If he does that, they wont have to pay a fee and will bump his wages up even more. He holds all the cards, Wenger should never of let it get to this stage!
Why? Before this year he had been reasonably average for us, if we had sold him then not many teams would be interested in him.
I must say I am rather disappointed by Nasri's attitude. It wasn't far into the previous season when in reference to Gallas at the home match against Spurs he said " There are always ups and downs in life but I have a lot of respect for the way a player stays loyal to his club " and then going further to say that he could not see himself joining the ' sworn enemy ' . Presumably he has justified his own actions now that he himself chooses to go to another ' enemy '. He did exhibit a great deal of flare and talent but only in the first half of the season and was almost nowhere when the team needed him most. Now it seems he is tempted by both money and the opportunity for silverware. In respect of the former I suppose every athlete does not have an infinite shelf life and I wonder too, if having the extra cover in the team over the past two years which may have yielded a trophy or two might have made the difference to this man's attitude. In that respect I do find Arsene Wenger's dithering and I admit that could also be due to the board, a costly failure that has beset the team. Back to Nasri though, I see no gain in keeping him for another year. He would be of no value to us when he does indeed walk next summer and I question too how he would benefit the team over the season now that his heart is elsewhere and his mind presumably not quite on the job, in addition to which might he even sulk his way through a whole year which would not help the morale of the team. Time to take the 20mil and find someone else who wants to play in an Arsenal shirt IMHO.
I don't think Wenger will let Nasri go under any circumstances and he knows that if Cesc goes, the club, board and fans will demand that's it's done with proper remuneration.
I don't believe for one minute the board have no ambition.Do you honestly believe they are not working in the best interests of the club.Over the last few years they have had to work undere severe financial constraints.Would you really like to see us ending up like Leeds and Portsmouth ?
I agree that we need to be spending somewhat more than we have been. The abstemious approach is very short-sighted. However we have made some pretty good purchases in Wright, Vierra, Va Va Voom and RVP. Ryo Miyachi is likely to come good as well but you are right. The board needs to realise that you need to spend decently to get some decent silverware. Haggling over a few hundred thousand is just being small-minded IMHO
In all honesty,all this talk about haggling is only paper talk.For instance take the Argentinian lad as an example,it's only a newspaper rumour that we were ever after him
I am equally sure that Nasri is mainly interested in money. He wouldn't have pressed us for such high wages if so in my opinion. However I do agree that we need a serious statement of intent, hopefully in the form of proven, talented signings, from the club in order to show that we are a top club. The situation is embarrassing for us at the moment.
I am in favour of selling Nasri for 20 millions plus. Then I'd go and get Eden Hazard from Lille, the guy is brilliant... probably 25 millions. I think Nasri will stay though if AW makes the right signings but he won't sign a new contract until Jan, a gamble then for us...
