The Hampshire Gooner
I found the recent exit of Samir Nasri quite an interesting one as it has raised some important issues surrounding the modern day game in my opinion.
Samir left the club having just one season remaining on his current contract. He didn’t want to sign a new one so would have left the club as a free agent next summer had we as a club decided not to cash in on him this time round to the tune of around £25m.
Gael Clichy was in exactly the same position as Samir and left to join the same club as Mr Nasri. We only received around £7m for letting our number one left back leave for pastures new compared to the £25m recouped for letting Samir boost his bank balance by joining up with Kolo and Co. at Eastlands.
I remember watching an interview with Samir just before we played United away in the league last season where he stated how settled he felt in London and how much he loved the cosmopolitan vibe that London has to offer. He apparently felt very at home with Arsenal and was speaking up the club’s chances of success in the coming months of that campaign. The reason why Samir was being interviewed in the first place was his then awesome goals to games record for the first half of last season. Samir had a very quite game against United that night at OT. Had that game been played a few months later on in the season I doubt very much whether many TV stations would have been queueing up to hold a pre-game interview with Samir. He went on to fail to score more than one more league goal in the entire second half of the season.
To get £25m on a player that does not want to sign a new contract and only has one more season left on his current deal who has played well for only one half of a season out of three full campaigns represents fantastic business. I for one do not see how we can much worst off as long as we re-invest those funds in fresh blood that is more committed to the cause.
Samir joins an ever growing list of ex-Arsenal players that in recent seasons has found the temptations of City’s money too much to turn down. In leaving Samir stated that he had wanted to join up with his new team mates in time for pre-season and it became clear from what the player said that he had no intention of staying at our club some time ago. Why is it then that Arsene has stated so many times in recent weeks about how much Samir loves the club etc? He clearly does not in my opinion and never did.
The way I see it in playing Samir against Liverpool the other weekend Arsene showed the world just how desperate a man he has become. He played a player who’s heart was not at the club he was playing for. He played a player that he knew would no longer be at the club the following midweek through no other decision other than the player’s himself. Arsenal FC did not want Samir to go. Arsene himself did not want Samir to go. So why play him against Liverpool? The answer is simply we were in a desperate situation as Arsene did not have any other player to call upon who he could rely on to do a job against another top side. It is my staunch belief that in playing Samir in this game Arsene showed how low we have got. It gets to a point where regardless of the situation you are better off sticking by your guns and showing some pride for once. In this instance pride in Arsenal FC was sadly lacking.
After signing for City Samir parted in a similar style to Adebayor by claiming he is glad to be joining a club with more passionate fans than those he got used to playing in front of at our stadium. Do not get me wrong, I agree with some of this as our ground sure does resemble a library at times, but for me this statement masks a real lack of intelligence in Mr Nasri’s personality. Had Samir possessed an ounce of intelligence as Mr Wenger would have had us believe in recent seasons surely Samir would have realised that by players like himself signing for City the fans’ passion will be killed off. If as a club you have to pay Samir and co around £165,000 a week then who in the long run actually pays for this increase on the payroll? The answer is the fans. Will City’s season ticket prices be going up over the next five seasons or so? You bet they will. Will the atmosphere still be the same inside the ground in five years time when the cheapest season ticket at the ground will be £1000+? You bet it won’t.
When we played at Highbury, Samir suggested the atmosphere was more passionate. Well this may well be the case but Samir did not ever play at Highbury so I don’t know how he knows that to be a fact. The main point is the passion amongst the supporters has died off in recent seasons for two reasons. The first is you can’t relate to any player at our club anymore than you can relate to a film star, as they earn an ever increasing amount of money which leaves them all cut off from the real world and they show less working loyalty than a street corner hooker. The second reason being that due to the amount of money you need to pay for a couple of season tickets without feeling the pinch, the calibre of supporter at football matches in general has changed so much over the last ten years or so. The average attendee at home Arsenal matches these days is seriously more bothered about the queue for a hot dog or missing their train home than the result on the pitch. Both of these reasons for a lack of atmosphere can be attributed to mercenaries like Samir. Intelligence Arsene? You are having a laugh.
The only saving grace for Samir in terms of the hatred he will receive from Gooners this season is the simple fact that the most wanted man must surely now go to former most hated man winner 2009. None other than WHL bound Emmanuel Adebayor who has just joined the Lilywhites on loan from City. I will not give the man anymore of my time other than to simply say Manu you are a low life c***.
To finish with I just wanted to make my feelings clear about the current playmaker situation at our club. After the loss of Cesc and Samir we badly need to add someone who can open up defences. I hope to heaven that Le Boss does not feel that buying in someone new will lead to the killing of Aaron Ramsey’s Arsenal career and use this an excuse to bank the £60m from the Cesc and Samir sales. In my opinion having watched top flight football from the age of six Aaron is simply not the answer. I know he had a horrific injury but he has been back playing for around 10 months or so now and I just can’t see him opening up top defences on a regular enough basis for us to be successful with him at the heart of our midfield. If you look at the number of assists Cesc made for us over the years Aaron will not reach half this number in the same period of time in my opinion. He is a good player but not good enough to carry this team forward on his own for the next eight months.
We need fresh blood and lots of it. We need Jack back as soon as possible and we then need to keep all of our key men fit for most of the campaign. Under these circumstances we have a chance of keeping our Champions League position for next season. If any of these factors do not happen than I fear we could be watching either Luis Saurez or Emmanuel Adebayor celebrating a return to Champions League football come the end of this season. Surely that possibility is too much for any true Gooner to bear as things stand.
