jck - for a start, Cardiff didn't give him the chance and "allow" him to go to Arsenal at all. Ridsdale was desperate for the £5M to fund HMRC debt - we had no choice but to accept Wenger's offer.
He was nowhere near on £400K/week at Nice - that was his contract wage deal when he signed for Juve. Guesstimates were around £80K/week at Nice but he also allegedly got a decent punch in the wallet signing on fee as a free agent.
Also it wasn't Nice who wanted to pay up his contract - he played 34 games for them last season. That was Juventus before they loaned him out to Rangers. He wasn't in contention there due to injury issues and costing them a fortune in the same way Bale took advantage of his contract at RM - but why not?
I'm totally with you on the Saudi issue although I think Nin was just having a laugh about that. If he took the shilling from Bin Salman having said all he has about "family and home" he'd surpass Bale in the rat stakes.
The only reason he wont be playing for City this season would be some sort of contractual hold that Nice still have over him.