Marseille expect Samir Nasri to complete his transfer to Arsenal in the next few days, leaving them free to splash the cash on Lyon’s Hatem Ben Arfa, and Nice’s Bakari Koné, according to the clubs local sports news agency La Provence.
The paper has close links with L’OM, and have previously broken exclusive stories regarding Marseille’s transfer business, including Nasri’s switch to the Gunners. They confirm chairman Pape Diouf has signalled out Lyon winger Hatem Ben Arfa, and the Nice forward Bakari Koné as suitable replacements, and want Arsenal to wrap up the deal quickly, in order to fund their own transfer business.
One part of the article i find very interesting is this.
“Dans quelques jours, le départ de Nasri à Arsenal sera officialisé et allégera considérablement la masse salariale du club. Par ailleurs”
Which translates as..
“In the next few days, the departure of Nasri to Arsenal will be officialized and will considerably reduce the wage bill of the club.”
This would indicate that Samir would be earning big money at Arsenal, which ties in with Wenger’s comments about the wage difference between the English and French Leagues.
Realistically his signing should be completed in the next days, so he has time to sort out his housing and such before going on holiday. But with all that’s gone on so far, this transfer is almost impossible to predict.
Arséne Wenger was working for Arabic network Al-Jazeera yesterday evening, alongside Cescare Maldini and Sami Al-Jaber, who both tried to convince Wenger into admitting he had signed Samir. Throughout the commentary, he was constantly asked “Your New Player Nasri?” and whilst the boss said nothing, several commenter’s said he “nodded” at this suggestion.
Thank you for everybody to sent this news in via comments, and e-mails.
Article By – J.Sanderson
If it’s on Arsenal.com then I’ll believe it. Bored of the whole thing now. Good research though J.
Thanks for the update :)
Ben i agree with that, because of all of the twists and turns involved, its taken some of the gloss of his arrival.
it has seemed that we need him more than he wants to come. hope it’s worth the wait.
pff topic: was it just me or did affellay look class yesterday against Romania?
it would be very interesting to know just what he will be paid. from what that says, he may go in as one of the top earners up there with Cesc. I can see why wenger would baulk at the prospect of that. I can just imagine after he has a couple of good seasons with us, Milan or Barca offer him £20k a week more and off he goes. Still, musn’t be too cynical before he’s even signed- lets hope he does the business.
I like toast
Kompany will not be signed… Any comment?
Afellay is a superb talent, but really injury prone which is a massive let down.
Gazzap i agree, maybe his wages are lots for Marseille, but not so much for Arsenal, but i guess we will never know
and i love nasri
Id rather get Orlando Engelaar than Afellay. Itd be nice to have a 6’5″ defensive midfielder, being left footed he would add a bit of balance to the midfield and I cant imagine FC Twente would command too big a fee for his services!
Affellay is definitely a player who i would like to see at arsenal and i think he could do better than Nasri IMO
You cant compare Affelay and Nasri.
Is anyone else having a rethinking about Nasri? It strikes me Nasri refused to put pen to paper pre-Euro2008 thinking that if he had a good tournament he would still have the option of a big money move to Spain or Italy. Now that France have crashed-out so unceremoniously, with Nasri offering next to nothing in 3 awful bit-part performances and Ribery emerging as the only Frenchman with his reputation still intact. I think Arsene should take the cash else where – Ribery or Ben Arfa look much better buys and what about the defensive midfielder we so clearly need?! It looks to me like L’OM are making off like bandits….
have patience fellow gooners.nasri will come and so will another couple of summer signings.geez,transfers take time and i for one would rather wenger took his time and brought to arsenal some quality signings not hasty fan pleasers.
Nasri is a good player and can become even better but there is something about his signing that does not excite me.
At the end of last season we struggled to hold on to leads and conceded from long balls in important games, that is what killed our chances of a trophy.
At that time we looked forward to a summer where Wenger would rectify this long standing problem, and Nasri is not the solution.
I would be much more excited about a tall commanding centre back or Defensive midfielder because that would make a huge difference to how we play-Nasri will change nothing about our play. Nasri is just another skillful player who has a tendency to over play and miss chances.
yh Engelaar would be a very good buy as he is a defensive mid which we need, hes experienced at 28 years old and hes a giant at 6ft 5. he wouldnt cost over £5 million either. he does his job no questions asked and hes the captain of FC Twente. AW should look into it and Podolski and Arda Turan
greedy i know but we need the players guys
Engelaar is too slow for the game we play.
And defensifly he’s poor.
I’ll be glad when this is all over. I hope the lad will be good for us. The next good thing we need more than ever for our own good is a quality centre back, one who wouldn’t let the side down especially in the bigger games. I’m sure the boss was only kidding when he said our defence doesn’t need strengthening. Gulp! was he? I hope he was!
yh thats why holland have only conceded 1 goal in euro 2008 so far because hes defensivly poor. have you not been watching him in the tournament joshua
Engelaar has just signed for Schalke anyway.
i think the official web will announce it in the weekend I cant wait
There is news in Turkey that Arsene Wenger is lining a bid for 21 yr old Arda Turan. I dont know about others here but he seem a better player than Nasri.
Maybe Arda Turan could fill the gap left by the never-present Tomas Rosicky.
J i agree with everythin you said mate. They way this has dragged on everyone keeps saying i will believe it when it’s on Arsenal.com but when it is no-one will be like YES we have signed him, also his wage may not be a top earner at Arsenal it just may have been a lot for Marseilles! Well i have thought we would get him all along so i will be happen if and when it’s confirmed.
Will still look forward to seeing him next season. Also J i ended up gettin Fabregas on the back of my pre-ordered shirt, couldn’t quite stretch to Emmanuel-Thomas haha :-)
He will come, he is a cunt and will use Arsenal as a stepping stone.
Then off curse he will suck when he leaves.
Engelaar has flashes of good play but altogether like previously mentioned a more seasoned version of diaby and i don’t think twente will be mugs over his price either i estimate £6 million plus. and on the subject of affelay i think although at times he dazzles with his skill he constantly took the wrong pass or shot when it wasn’t on and RVP was always waiting for the pass. sanderson can you justify our purchase of ramsey, personally i feel we should bring through the likes of lansbury and wilshere than forking out 5 mil on a welshman?
Don’t think he wil get Turan to be honest.
My mate is a Toon fan so i have been keeping an eye out for them on newsnow too and they had a bid of £9m turned down so i don’t think that he would bid £10+ for another midfielder when we don’t really need another one if we have Nasri. also that fee could go as high as £15m if he keeps playing the way he is for Turkey!
Must admit he does look dazzling though, he gets past people like they aren’t there and even has a couple of good goals to boot! whoever gets him will have a real gem on their hands i think!
This is a great site and getes stories right, it was first with this story and got the Ramsey right. Better than the other crap sites out there
sorry he meaning Wenger, just to clear that up :-)
Great news Provence is often very reliable.
I think a team with Cesc, Nasri, RVP and Rosicky is going to be a fantastically creative team. I can actually see ADE scoring more with nasri in the team also.
I really dont think Gilberto is good enough anymore. If Yaya was to sign, id be delighted. But that would hinder diaby and denilson’s progress.
Manuel
Sagna-Kolo-Gallas-Gael
Nasri-cesc-diaby-rosicky
rvp-ade
super subs theo and bendtner.
P.Y I totally agree with you, Engelaar looked a quality player and his build would suggest he could do the business in the premier league. I think we need a player with that sort of physique because we aren’t physically the side we were when we had Vieira and Campbell etc.
i think im one of few who dont want him so much and who think there are some better and more experienced players in the market for a same fee…i just think a young midfielder is something that we are not missing, having lansbury, ramsey, merida, denilson, diaby, randall, gibbs etc…it will surely slow their developing and eg instead of having our own english home grown players, we will have a boy with huge wages, who will go someshere else if we are not winning…
i meant somewhere
I can only see 1 more signing after Nasri joins us and I think it will be a defensive player – whether that’s a defensive midfielder or defender, I don’t know! Can Ramsey play at full back if needed as I think we need more cover for Clichy and Traore’s looking more like a winger now!
Those quotes were on La Provence on 16th June, a couple of days ago, so not sure how reliable they are.
It definitely would not have been completed in the next few days had France have qualified
The quotes are not up do date
What I am trying to say is that signing Nasri is not progress, it is a simple replacement for Hleb.
Progress in my eyes is rectifying the problem of losing leads, conceding from long balls, and struggling against physical opposition.
way off subject but made me laugh all the same apparently new news on newsnow has said that we have just signed Ramsey. nice to see they are up to date :-D
j..
who else wenger will sign this summer?
only nasri and ramsey?
any update?
one more thing..
is hleb leaving arsenal this summer?
i dont think anyone can complain about us signing nasri, even if he or she would like to see us get a holding mid or a centreback as well. Engelaar would never fit in our system, he doesn’t have a very good touch (which is rather odd for a dutchman). once/if nasri signs, i think wenger will focus on finding a holding mid, maybe veloso, before signing another offensive player. Turan would be amazing if the price isn´t too high, but i think Afellay still needs time to develop with psv. another year and he will be golden…
Clacko .. you should have jus had JET on your shirt;). haha.
yep i saw that Ramsey thing too haha.
Nasri isnt that young hes 21 years old which is fairly young but hes experienced hes played in the Champs league, Uefa cup and French league for a few seasons. He is only just outside the French starting lineup and thats purely because Domenech is an idiot otherwise he’d be in there team. Chaos said “there are some better and more experienced players in the market for a same fee”.Maybe Wenger doesnt feel these players would fit into the way Arsenal play or maybe they cost way more than there worth. Also how much “experience” do you guys want in players? Man Utd dont always sign amazingly experienced players Nani, Anderson an Rooney being prime examples so quit the lack of experience Bull people keep comin out wit all the time.
Its not our last signing, so there are still time to rectify the long ball problem. And yeah, this whole saga thing has taken its toll on people’s interest. Similar to that of Hleb too.
Enjoy watching the EUROs guys. It’ll be announced in due time. Don’t get frust about it.
Agree Duck!, i dont think Nasri will be our last signing of the window, but i think he will be our biggest high profile signing.
Afellay is a superb talent, but really injury prone which is a massive let down.
Gazzap i agree, maybe his wages are lots for Marseille, but not so much for Arsenal, but i guess we will never know
He has improved over this last season, I think you can say he isn’t as injury prone anymore. He looks more of a physical presence now. Afellay is the most fouled person in the dutch premier division, in fact there isn’t anyone coming near to the number of fouls made on him. I think Afellay is better than Nasri. Afellay can do practicly anything he can play left right and in the centre. He’s two footed, he can shoot from distance, has great vision and a good reading of the game, he has the ability to beat players, his longe range as well as through balls are marvelous… I would love to see him at Arsenal in 2009/2010!!
I wish we would sign Villa.
Watching this tournament so far is left me wanting Modric.
I think a lot of the negativity is because he didn’t (get a chance to) set the Euros alight. This means nothing.
Careful when you talk about Engelaar etc. Many a player has had an absolute blinder for his nation at a Championships, then flopped like a nervous porn actor for his new club. Dumitrescu, Amokachi, Oleg Salenko, Stefan Schwarz and John Jensen are my early 90s references.
The scouts will have been watching this Nasri lad for a long, long time. Nowadays, Wenger doesn’t spend millions without good cause; the days of Frannie Jeffers are long gone. We won’t be throwing money away like that again.
do you remeber J last time before the EURO’s that Nasri was here is it relly true? he was here
What’s with everyone using the tournament as their scouting guide for who will be great? After four billion flops bought after good international tournaments, you’d think people would look past it now. And with tracking players being instantly available on the internet people should really be knowing Engelaar isn’t the answer.
That and people that think Nasri will be the last signing of the summer, even though AW said he wanted a long ball man. Oh, and that the bloody market still isn’t open!
All this is interesting …… but still reeling from Wenger saying we dont need any defenders. WHAT???!!!
Please let this be a bluff and he’s trying to buy Mexes or Richards or yes Kompany.
WE NEED A CENTRE HALF THAT CAN HEAD THE BALL!!!!
Gallas looked very slow/old for France. And I no longer feel safe with Kolo.
MICAH RICHARDS LOVES ARSENAL! BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY!!!!
… and just read Bentley’s on his way to spurs. Great.
I dnt feel excited about Nasri dnt no why
It would be criminal from Wenger not to buy a commanding center defender.
Arsenal has big names that gives fans hope straight away for next season, mostly in the offensive part.
But the same can’t be said too, we have the worst record of the top four for conceding goals, so getting a top defender isn’t a luxury that we must dwell on.
Simply we have Sagna (RB) and Clichy (LB) in the Preier League team of the season and hadn’t anybody in the center, so that tells you we aren’t at the same level in that position and it needed to be fixed.
What I find strange is that Wenger stated at the meeting with the shareholders that he will rectify that problem by signing a new defender (I think he said that).
For Wenger to keep denying any interest in bringing defenders to Arsenal is something alarming, as he cant go back on his word as easily as in the first one.
He should sell Gallas if someone is willing to buy him and his huge wage bill and Senderos and get the ideal commanding partner for Toure.
Then Arsenal can rest assured of not conceding silly goals and focus on scoring more goals and winning.
It is like if Brazil is with their magician players lose due to having a bad defenders, in the end all those players efforts will count for nothing trophy wise.
If possible a campaign should start demanding the signing of a super defender whatever the costs, or we will risk going a forth season without a trophy and doubt creeping to the players heads that all their efforts are futile with Arsenal.
Please Wenger: Nasri and a defender and let the race begin.
Big Al: Jeffers was pretty exciting at Everton. Like Wright looked marvelous in goal for Ipswich. Cygan was French Player Of The Year (As was malouda).
I’m just saying, I bet he was scouted pretty regularly. I remember watching motd and thinking he was gonna be a big star, and being excited when he signed.
Why would we want Modric? As an article i read said he has done nothing special in the Euros at all he hasnt made any killer passes and the only significant thing he has done is scored a penalty but he didnt win the penalty anyway.
Yeah Samuel, I agree, Wright and Jeffers did look good (but the certainly weren’t good-looking). But did they look arsenal standard?
I know it’s easy to say this with hindsight, but there was definitely a risk factor with both of them – those signings were gambles and most fans I know said so at the time.
My point is that, given our financial situation, we don’t throw our money like we used to. Nasri has had international and Champs league experience. I think that helps us justify 11 million.
Reyes: Pre-ANC, we had no defensive problems. Teams weren’t being successful hoofing it over us, Sagna sured up the right, Gallas and Toure were stunning together.
The only thing we need is a replacement for Senderos in my eyes (so he can go for a season on loan to a defense in which he can take charge, hopefully help his confidence and take responsibility) who can rotate with Gallas and Toure when we play the likes of Wigan and Boro.
is there any chance we would look at sidnei from internacional, apparently he’s a better prospect than breno!
Big Al: I totally agree. Although only a year away from the highbury square sales, we should see much more money available. But I think we are all kinda weary of Wenger learning to be a spendthrift.
Modric looks like Hleb if Hleb replaced killer assists with 1 pointless, lame shot a game.
Samuel;
Neither Gallas, Toure, Senderos and Djourou are dominating in the air against long ball.
It is so clear that this position is our weakest link to the team, Wenger mustn’t gamble on fixing something cant be fixed, and buy a straight away replacement.
What I find strange and stunning is that Arsenal will sell Hleb and buy Nasri and still get a profit to add to the Muamba fee that they received earlier, in other words Arsenal didn’t spend any pence for new first team players, so surely they can afford a player in the 15 million pound region at least.
J.Sanderson , Do you think wenger lost interest in ben arafa and now he is going to marseille.
Modric class gutted we didn’t get him who cares about if he hasn’t played well in the euros when he clearly has been good
i have heard france put nasri on a plane to london last night….
…..however he didnt arrive because they took him off it 15 minutes later
modric has beeen good, come on guyz just cause he plays for spuds don’t mean hes playing crap. he been playing good.
hahaha good on johnjo :P I hope they didn’t send us boumsong instead though?!!
Modric class gutted we didn’t get him who cares about if he hasn’t played well in the euros when he clearly has been good.
If he cant play well in the Euros whats to say he will play well in the EPL its a major step up and will be much more physical. He may do well here its just whenever ive seen him play hes done little to impress me. Also he seems like a younger version of Rosicky so if Rosicky stays fit they would be too similar.
Benzema hasn’t played good at the euros atall but I know you would want him at the club.
we need a right winger desperately as walcott will play up front next season and eboue is rubbish at right mid so we need atleast 1 right mid i would prefer ricardo quaresma or even shaun wright philips someone like that. i wouldnt mind if adebayor goes to barca for 24m if we get villa as a replacement.
DO you think we’ll sign a defender?
id love for wenger to get joaquin for the right mid
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7462281.stm
bbc just broke that news about NASRI !!!!!!!!!!!!!
BBC has just reported Nasri has signed for Arsenal for £13.5m –
Finally!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7462281.stm
Joaquin is absolutely shite. Eboue’s better than him. Know what i’m saying.
They dont report we have signed him guys, just a contract has been agreed which we already knew. Just waiting for the deal to be completed.
eboue does add a rough element we lack, but if he stops diving hell be a legend !
A defender J do you think we’ll sign a defender? Anybody think the whole Albiol/Kompany thing is a smokescreen for Arsene trying to sign Zapata?
Wenger says no defender.. so i dont think we will get one.
Damn J damn. If we end up signing Zapata or whoever I want some virtual hugs cause I still think he might sign a defender or at least a defensive midfielder who can play in defense like De La Red.
you can have all the hugs you want mate ;) i want the same back when we dont buy anybody then :D
Eboue a legend? That pile of shite needs to be sold asap.
wow if he is already on a large wage rate imagine what he will be asking for in 2 years time!!!! this guy is still untested!i for one am not looking foward to this one id rather see someone like richard dunne come into the team = cheap plus effective
Modric looks like shite in Euro. But we all know Wenger do not buy players over big tournaments. He does his homework, our scouts must have watched him for a long time, perhaps even for one or two season. No doubt, should certain big players whom are good suddenly become available then maybe he’ll move fast. How many times have we heard players we signed said Arsenal scouts have been watching him for almost 1 year?
Buying based on EuRO performance is risky as players peak or play exceptionally good in tournaments like this but there is no consistency in their game over the entire season.
Forget Jeffers, managers make mistakes too. Ferguson bought an old man, Blanc and played him at CB too.
On Modric, i think we were serious about him but he snubbed us, only to sign for Spurs in less than a year. See what kinda ambition he has? And with our interest in Nasri by then, i doubt we wanted him when Spurs signed him. There are good reasons not to sign him cos he does look like a c*nt. However, he is playing shite in Euro probably because he isn’t playing in his normal position at the flank? But still shitty. hehehe
According to Wikipedia, Nasri had signed Arsenal… Em… My question is… Is Wiki spreading rumour too?
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I could go on Wikipedia and make Kaka an Arsenal player.
BBC are close to confirming that the deal for Nasri is done, and they generally have some good info.
http://www.arsenal-opinion.com
According to La Provence Samir Nasri Has Boarded A Plan To London To Finalise Terms And To Look For Houses Before He Goes For A Vocation.
http://www.laprovence.com/articles/2008/06/19/492073-A-la-une-Nasri-attendu-a-Arsenal.php
song did very well in both africa cup of nations and can well cover defensively and buying too many players might hit back as talents as nordtveit, wilshere and others are on the way through. Nasri is one of a kind, and have been a great fan of him for years. Gilberto can teach everyone about professionalism and loyalty, and I believe his experience and days are not over. Sad to say about a true gooner, but is J Hoyte still good enough?
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