Written by Mean Lean on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 20:28

A little late in the day I know, I am guessing that by the time I post this, many will be tucked up in bed suckling on thumbs after just finishing your warm glass of milk. And to those who are still awake and still looking around the ins and outs of newsnow for transfers then shame on you, you really should know better. Says Mr hypocrite over here.

There has been plenty to say today and typically I did not get round to writing anything earlier due to circumstances beyond one's control and all that so I won't go into great detail but I did have something on my chest that I wanted to get off.

Much has been made of Arsene Wenger's comments about keeping hold of Samir Nasri until the last year of his contract. Why are we allowing this situation to happen again after being stung by the Flamini and Edu situations? are some of the comments that I have heard today and on the face of it, I agreed until I thought a little closer.

Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger have already said that they would not allow this situation to happen again and if a deal was not agreed then said player would be sold. So what happened from that point to Wenger's interview yesterday?

It seems to have escaped many as well as my own until I stepped back, that we do not have much of a leg to stand on. Our cards are pretty crap while Nasri and his agent holds the aces.

Let me throw an example your way for a second. Grimsby Town chairman *god knows what his name is* is moving furniture around his house and lifts up his sofa with his best mate Bob. Underneath that sofa he finds his missing briefcase. He cannot believe his luck as he opens it and remembers the £30m cash packed into this large suitcase. It even has enough change to pay someone 185 grand per week over the course of 5 years. I would use a calculator at this point, but I am in the flow of this story so you may want to do that yourself. Unless you are better than I am at maths which knowing me, is probably most of you.

Anyway, in a panic Mr Grimsby chairman wants to spend this cash asap because if the wife gets hold of it then it will only go on new handbags and yet another new kitchen.

After reading many Arsenal in crisis stories in that old newspaper the News of the world, he plucked up the courage to call Arsene and table a £30m bid to which we accepted knowing that it was unlikely that Nasri would change his mind at this late stage.

Arsene called Nasri into his office and broke the news to him. We have accepted a bid from another English club who are willing to pay you 185g's a week. Off Nasri set to look around Grimsby and meet the chairman and his mate Bob who was after Samir's autograph.

After careful consideration, careful as in 12 seconds, Nasri decided that Grimsby wasn't quite the club that suited him and the area probably wasn't the best place in the world to raise little Samir Nasri's.

So Nasri told Wenger that he was not going to move to Grimsby and play with rubbish players, he was not going to play in a tiny stadium and little Nasri's would not be getting pissed in local Grimsby parks.

Do you get where I am going with this? Replace Grimsby with Manchester City and replace the turn offs for the most expensive bus parking anti football team in the world, I guess you can keep the getting pissed in local parks.

So why the confusion? Well Arsene Wenger in the recent presser was a little unlikely to say

'Nasri the little runt does not want to go to Grimsby, he has turned down that offer and is probably going to run down his contract. I have instructed Abou to give him some kicks in training as punishment but hopefully Diaby doesn't end up hurting himself'

Arsene Wenger, as we know backs his players in public, probably even in this type of situation. I imagine that Arsene hopes that Nasri will change his mind with so much love in the room.

So with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all running around with their skirts lifted why hasn't Nasri made the decision to jump de ship?

Picture the scenario, Samir and his agent are taking a gentle stroll along Hampstead Heath and Mr iwantthebestinterestsofmyclient felt his mobile phone ringing in his pocket. After answering and chatting for a couple of seconds he hands the phone to Nasri and says 'You might wanna take this'

New director of football at Real Madrid Zinedine Zidane is on the blower and is whispering sweet nothings about how he always wanted to become the new Samir Nasri but was just a little too old for that title. The trouble is Real do not want to pay a transfer fee and Samir has his heart set on linking up with his idol.

I am not saying that this is going to happen, I am just painting a different picture to the one that is currently painted, dried and hung up already.

In short, Arsene Wenger and the club are powerless if Nasri has decided that he wants to see out his contract. Maybe I should have just said that in the first place rested my fingers.

But why have the club allowed this situation to arise?

I am not so sure that we have. Contracts have been offered over the last year, well that is from what I have read. For one reason or another, the player has not signed a contract extension so we have ended up in this position. What do we do? slap a player on the transfer list when the player has not signed a new deal within a week? It is not that simple, players have to be allowed room to negotiate and it happens at every single club even clubs like Manchester United who can do no wrong. Wayne Rooney was apparently on the verge of a move to their biggest rivals and then accepted a fat pay rise at his current club. It happens everywhere.

It was only the season before the one gone where I read that Samir Nasri was fat and average. He was a waste of time and that we should have bought James Milner instead. No word of a lie, this stuff was pouring out of fans finger tips. You can be sure that those same fans would be absolutely incensed if we had tied Nasri down to a five year contract.

'What has he done to deserve that? The club are a joke, Wenger's ego, project youth is a failure blah blah blah'. Fast forward to July 2011 and it is now 'how can the club get to this situation? pay him what he wants and stop messing around!'

Unluckily for the club, they do not work with hindsight, they have to make very tough decisions and try to get everything spot on. It is easy to say that we should buy Lorik Cana one year and then forget that it was raved about the next, the club cannot scream about how poor Alex Song is and then ask for a back up to him a few years later. Life at Arsenal football club is a little more difficult than that.

Anyway, stuff to do but I shall be back with my excitable self, talking about the upcoming game. THE ARSENAL ARE BACK! WAAAYYY HEEEYY!

Back tomorrow.

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Comments (47)

• 12-Jul-2011 21:04 | | Savage
  

  In all of this I wonder if there's ever a time for Arsene to tell the public how naughty his little player has been? I'm not saying he should, but I do wonder how things would play out?

• 12-Jul-2011 21:07 | | MeanLean
  

  It would be interesting but I am not sure if it is Wenger's way. He usually bases his management on trust and respect etc. Not that it always goes the other way.

• 12-Jul-2011 21:08 | | Savage
  

  Talking of the noise, I see we really missed out on Carlton Cole, again proving that Wenger was an idiot not to sign an obvious target that all the fans and the pundits knew was the right decision. Now that he's proven what a massive player he is and gone to our main rivals Stoke for 4 million, we really could have signed him for 8 million and saved ourselves a lot of money. Or maybe my maths is as bad as yours?

• 12-Jul-2011 21:10 | | Tom  - 1 sentence
  

  yeah.... could've saidf all that with a simple, 'Maybe Nasri has decided to see out his contract and refuses to be sold.' Simples!

• 12-Jul-2011 21:12 | | P
  

  Really? I knew from the title on NewsNow that this article wasn't 100% serious. Still, I have a life - a busy life - and I've just got home from work at 10pm, cooked and sat down to have a look online at Arsenal-related news...
  
  I knew clearly that Grimsby weren't to blame for Nas's contract but I thought at least there might be a new angle or something witty and amusing to entertain me. Instead, there's this crap. I don't wish to be harsh to someone who writes about Arsenal for free in their spare time, but a hit-trawling title like this backed up by a dull article has ensured that your site's now blocked from my NewsNow feed. Perhaps you might want to think again before going for a title like this again. A few years ago it might have worked - when the internet was younger or before people could remove sites from NewsNow. These days, people are wise to it - they feel like you're taking them for credulous fools with the title and so they block your site. In the long term, you're the loser. If you want to post your thoughts on the Nas situation, fine, but don't use a crappy attention seeking title.

• 12-Jul-2011 21:12 | | SA-Gooner  - not again
  

  If Nasri runs down his contract I doubt he will be 100% committed this season. The last thing he (or his agent) would want, is for him to break his little french fries. As for the left side issue Arsene should buy a LB Gibbs is okay but needs competition for that spot.

• 12-Jul-2011 21:15 | | MeanLean
  

  Haha Yup, Carlton Cole was the missing link and we didn't buy him because he is not French.. or something. Damn!

• 12-Jul-2011 21:17 | | MeanLean
  

  Yup, of course.
  
  If you want hits then use Grimsby. Got it. Thanks.

• 12-Jul-2011 21:30 | | Hotsteppa
  

  Seriously P you need to calm down a little. From what I have read from this site; it is not a blog that seeks attention as you put it. You need to have some weed and relax a little FFS.
  
  Great blog ML. Wouldn't it be great if Nas signed a new deal and turned into the player we hoped he would at Arsenal.
  
  Looking forward to watching Ryo tomorrow, do you think he will start?

• 12-Jul-2011 21:32 | | Lucygooner  - Well said
  

  Excellent article - am going to encourage my Gooner mates to view!!

• 12-Jul-2011 21:38 | | MeanLean
  

  Thank you Hotsteppa and Lucy.
  
  Disclaimer: Oh and no offence meant to any Grimsby fans. Plucked a team out of thin air. Never been there in my life, I am sure pissed kids are not running around in and it is a most wonderful place to be.

• 12-Jul-2011 21:42 | | Jerrell  - Great Article
  

  Sometimes my fellow Gunner fans upset me. We are sometimes so critical of our players and at the next turn we praising them..most of us are gunning to sell arshavin, but the little russian contributed 17 assist last year in all competitions and 6 or 7 goals. had he like ben which was only bettered by fabregas. Most of us say fabregas should go and his heart is not in it, but the boy is torn between two parents both of which he is fond of. I am happy with whatever the outcome will be in his situation. Most fans have said that we should sell nasri and not let him go on a bosman next year, but the decision is not up to the board but the player. I still believe that AW is doing a good job with the team and he knows how weak the team will be without nasri and fab and he knows the right signings that the team needs

• 12-Jul-2011 22:22 | | B  - Asnl
  

  

• 12-Jul-2011 22:23 | | Andy Mack
  

  Quite the reverse. He has to play out of his skin this season if he want the best deal from the next club in the queue. He's only had half a season where he's really looked special and if he looks mediocre for the next season then it'll be one and a half seasons of 'nothing special'.

• 12-Jul-2011 22:27 | | Alan Swainson  - Get a grip of yourselves
  

  Nasri us coming to City,either now for 22.5 m or next summer for nowt.
  Live with it, remember when you bought Tommy Caton (R.I.P) well, the world turns and we are not the little club anymore

• 12-Jul-2011 22:31 | | emiratesstroller
  

  There are two explanations to consider in current situation.
  
  1. Nasri treats football as nothing more than a business in which he is
  extracting the maximum amount of money during his career. Also his
  agent sees an opportunity to increase earnings for both player and
  himself by allowing the contract to run down.
  
  2. That the player is ambitious and feels that the club,manager or team
  lacks what it takes to win trophies and his opportunity is better
  elsewhere.
  
  Either way what is clear with Nasri is that there is not an ounce of sentiment or loyalty to the club, which is sadly very apparent in far too many footballers today. In short they are mercenaries.
  
  The weakness of Bosman is not that players should not be allowed to move, but that a club which has invested £15 million in a transfer fee
  receive absolutely no compensation at the end of his contract.

• 12-Jul-2011 23:16 | | PAUL
  

  I have never seen such a talented footballer look so disinterested in the game as Arshavin last season. I don't think it's particular to Arsenal as he was ripped to shreds by Russian commentators for internationals as well.

• 12-Jul-2011 23:38 | | sam
  

  are these 2 players bigger than arsenal? nope!
  personally i think getting rid of them could be a blessing in disguise and find our way to winning things. the money we can generate from these 2 can buy 2 players who can also help in defence. anyone noticed we stopped winning when we lost tall midfielders. we had vieira,petit, gilberto,edu. their height helped out during set pieces(offense or defense). now we cannot penetrate opposition defense, we rarely scored from set pieces and conceded more. i say sell them and buy marouane fillaini and ganso or similiar types like leroy.
  we wont be weaken if arsene use the money wisely. let cesc go warm the bench at barca and nasri go learn how to park italian bus.
  we didnt use to play better but sometimes a winning goal from header by vieira gave us 3 points and few goal line clearances helped our game

• 12-Jul-2011 23:47 | | richie  - Nas playing out of his skin?
  

  Nas at times looks world class and full of potential but so far the consistancy isn't there. Remember Flamini? Like Nasri a Marseille born & bread player that we bought from France's 2nd city club. Another from that club that has looked to run his contract out. Matheau played magnificient for the one season to put himself in the shop window, engineered his free transfer to AC Milan in 08 with a contract reportedly worth € 5.5 million a year. He was hardly used but last year he found a more regular spot and got his first Italian league winners medal. Maybe there's something in the water down there that makes them mercenary. Since the one great season (even when winning last year) he hasn't emulated that again. He's nothing but a utility player.

• 13-Jul-2011 01:12 | | Domhuaille
  

  Alan Swainson - Get a grip of yourselves?
  Mate go back to keystage 2 and learn to spell, write coherent sentences and spell. Here are some suggestions to help you:
  
  1)Get a grip of yourselves-you must mean on yourselves?
  2)Nasri us coming to City-you surely intended to write is coming?
  3)either now for 22.5 m or next summer for nowt - you mean for free!
  You aren't the little club anymore,-Sorry to burst your bubble lad but its far too soon to tell! Based on your pitiful English skills I presume you are a Mancunian?

• 13-Jul-2011 07:17 | | Little Chris  - Condesending p****s
  

  Sums up why THE Arsenal are the most hated club in London. So far up their own backsides it is untrue

• 13-Jul-2011 07:41 | | MeanLean
  

  Hey Tiny Chris, why so envious? What's the problem?

• 13-Jul-2011 11:16 | | matt
  

  To be honest Nasri would just be a benchwarmer here at Grimsby I couldnt see him getting on ahead of anthony church and craig disley!
  
  Best of luck for 2011/12.

• 13-Jul-2011 12:08 | | Anonymous
  

  Is there any truth in this Nasri to GTFC rumour?

• 13-Jul-2011 12:21 | | Mighty Mariner  - Are You ON Drugs???
  

  So let me get this right, our chairman John Fenty has £30 million under his sofa yet we find ourselves in the BSP. Nasri doesn't want to come to us because we have crap players and wants whats best for his kids. Apparently the local parks in North London are so much better than our local parks.
  
  Who says we wanted Nasri anyway? Cannot see him replacing any of our new signings anyway but thank you so much for your interest in our team.
  
  Up The Mariners

• 13-Jul-2011 12:27 | | harry the haddock  - fenty, john fenty's the name..
  

  ..of our millionaire chairman, and you aren't too far off with plenty of wonga being blown on mrs fenty, who has allegedly, been 'improved' . we also have the enormous pleasure of being able to admire his daughter when we buy tickets for the next non league shiite who come to visit la costa del cleethorpes.
  as for nasri he was apparently seen at a) millfields and b) the petrol station on the M180 (private joke for all fishy people)

• 13-Jul-2011 12:32 | | Mr John Fenty (con)  - Greetings...
  

  If you come down to Blundell Park,
  You're sure of a big surprise,
  There's me and my mate,
  Stood at the gate with our filleting knives,
  We'll spray ammonia in your eyes and slash you with our Stanley knives,
  If you come down to Blundell Park in the morning...

• 13-Jul-2011 12:48 | | MARRIIINNNEEEERRRSSSS
  

  Don't want another journeyman like Nasri, we need up and coming young players who are on the way up, not on the way down like Nasri. Bradley Wood would kick him to pieces. MAAAARRRIIINNNNEEERRRRSSSS

• 13-Jul-2011 12:58 | | BRO  - Hmmmmm
  

  Decent article!
  
  Can't understand the remark at the end about Alex Song though, as for me one he has been one of the most consistant players this year & always gives 100%

• 13-Jul-2011 13:06 | | Ben  - Grimsby don't want Nasri
  

  We've had enough losers play for us over the years and we don't want another one.
  
  Any player that has had involvement with Arsenal and their 1950's morals shouldn't be touched with a barge pole.

• 13-Jul-2011 13:20 | | Anonymous  - Nasri sighted
  

  This rumour is certainly gathering pace. My mate has said Nasri HAS met Fenty at a hotel in Lincoln this afternoon. Others are interested (both Manchester clubs plus Juve) but we are currently favourites to sign him.
  
  Exciting times to be a GTFC fan.
  
  UTM

• 13-Jul-2011 13:50 | | jesusSaves  - Steriods or not?
  

  i hope most fans see this article. football is complex and not every club is Man city or Chelsea. SO arsenal scouts players for years to make sure that a Alex Song and Samir Nasri be great players. While other clubs hear the rumors about which players we put our hard work in scouting, and just look at a Youtube clip and buy the player.
  If the world is changing and using steriods in 100m sprint, do you use steroids too? Or you keep the same model finish 2nd 3rd or 4th with integrity?
  Its a tough decision.

• 13-Jul-2011 13:59 | | Mariners  - - We P!$$ on your fish
  

  shocking article,
  
  MeanLean you to$$er im not that bitter you used our clubs name, after all we will probs have more glory this year than you boys, your clubs in decline and i cant wait to see you participate in another trophyless season, but with the added extra of not qualifing for the champos league, Wenger out i say hes a spent force.
  
  All the best
  Pride of Lincolnshire GY town.

• 13-Jul-2011 14:56 | | Podge
  

  Did you actually take that seriously FFS it is a clear joke. The writer even says Grimsby was a random choice and he hasn't a clue about the area the concept is that Madrid is a more attractive place than anywhere in England

• 13-Jul-2011 15:05 | | shooy  - Is that a complex I see?
  

  Get over yourselves.

• 13-Jul-2011 15:08 | | shooy  - Infreriority complex?
  

  Yeh but the people who really matter in London all love THE Arsenal. You simply don't count .

• 13-Jul-2011 15:12 | | shooy  - It's Grim oop north
  

  Must be the fishy smell, but they ain't half a miserable bunch up Grimsby way. They really are grim.

• 13-Jul-2011 15:28 | | mr h
  

  Wow... Mean, I bet you are starting to wish you had chosen Accrington Stanley rather than Grimsby Town for your article.
  
  Clearly the concept of ALLEGORY goes over the heads of Grimsby fans.
  
  Maybe you have heard of metaphors? Or should I spell it meta4's???

• 13-Jul-2011 15:49 | | DavyGTFC
  

  We don't won't your cast off's anyway UP THE MARINERS

• 13-Jul-2011 17:03 | | redboy  - have you 4 got
  

  have we all 4 got how fucking shit are defence was last season when is wenger gunna get some c/halfs 4 fucks sake b 4 its to late

• 13-Jul-2011 21:43 | | TW Area Town Supporter  - mr h up his own arsenal
  

  Ooo, get you with your big words.
  
  We don't have the benefit of education so it's good of you to point out it was an ALLEGORY. In caps too, in case anyone was unaware of your learning.
  
  I bet you went to one of those posh seats of learning. What do they call them?.....Schools.
  
  Good point well made Mean Lean..

• 13-Jul-2011 22:39 | | we only sing when were fishing
  

  Makes me chuckle that all the places nearby and grimsby hits the radar. That means you now have to visit and see if it is how you imagine nasri at town...mr fenty must be the lucky euro millions winner
  
  Utm

• 13-Jul-2011 22:43 | | GTFC
  

  We'll take him

• 13-Jul-2011 23:23 | | MarinersExile
  

  BTW, how much did you b*ggers "bung" the ref in the 1936 FA Cup Semi-Final?
  When I was a kid all the old guys were going on about it.

• 14-Jul-2011 09:05 | | UTM2011
  

  Does it ever occur to you that for us "grim up north" peasants your jibes about a place and a community most of you have never had any contact with comes over as a little bit smug?

• 14-Jul-2011 13:46 | | marvin
  

  im?????????????

• 19-Jul-2011 17:39 | | Giles Gooner  - Nasri Must Go
  

  All the talk from Nasri about wanting to go to man united and 1 year on his contract Arsenal must sell to the highest bidder. Lets face it we have only had half a good season out of him. loyalty doesn't mean to much to him anyway.

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