Marseille play-maker Samir Nasri HAS finalised his transfer to Arsenal, despite claims from his agent to the contrary. France Football sent a journalist to investigate, after the statement confirming Samir’s switch appeared on his website, before being taken down this evening.
They soon discovered the website is owned and run by Nasri’s father, who takes charge of Samir’s commercial aspects off the pitch. The journalist claims he talked with Nasri senior, who admitted the deal is completed and will be formally announced by both parties tomorrow. He then called popular sports radio station RMC, and relayed this latest update to it’s listeners.
It appears news reached his father, who promptly added the information to his website. But then realised both sides wished to keep the deal quiet, and announce it together, which is due to take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Eagle eyed Young Guns reader Alex spotted pictures of the player on the Arsenal.com server, and after they were posted here, were quickly removed. Is a potential cover up taking place? it seems so.
Nasri’s agent is Jean-Pierre Bernes, a name which will send shivers down the spine of manager Arsène Wenger.
Bernes and Wenger have a much published history, as the agent was convicted of corruption in French football after being caught paying players to throw matches. JP was the Marseilles managing director at the time, and his actions prevented Wenger’s Monaco side from winning the league title.
When the Gunners boss found out, he refused to even speak with Bernes, and the pair have held a hostile relationship since. It was JP who quickly jumped out this evening saying “he has not signed, he has not signed”, another opportunity to have a dig at his old foe.
Samir is expected to wear the number 8 shirt, but more details will be known tomorrow afternoon.
Article By – J.Sanderson, With Thanks To Thomas From ArsenalLover
what a mess. good stuff tho sanderson
Its a mess when the club are keeping secrets from the fans, and from everything i have seen it looks that way.
Eh, i cant take it, if he signs good signing, if he doesnt sign we’ll sign some1 else, just wait and see. It makes sense that it would be covered up because Arsenal like to keep transfers under raps until eveything is done and sure, something at which they’ve failed miserbaly with in this transfer right from the interest until the actual signing. I hope your right, but im not believing anything now until its on Arsenal.com
How did your friend manage to spot what was on the server? As im curious as to how to do that as i wouldnt have the faintest idea how to do anything but look at the page.
Also thanks for all the updates JS uve done really really well on this i know lots of people keep complaining but its good to be kept up to date, although i will be immensely pleased when he does sign so i can order my Nasri 8 shirt!!
“believing anything now until its on Arsenal.com”
Although he’ll probably have trained with the first team for a week before they bother to announce it.
Total mystery. Lets just be patient and wait for the official announcement.
“Also thanks for all the updates JS uve done really really well on this i know lots of people keep complaining but its good to be kept up to date, although i will be immensely pleased when he does sign so i can order my Nasri 8 shirt!!”
Yea good work on your part mate, ive said it before but ill say it again, great site and cutting edge reporting. Duno how u get this stuff so quick but i imagine it must b quite hard and frantic work at times, but keep it up cuz ur doin an amazing job.
With quiet easy to get the pictures from the sever, but for legal reasons, its probably not best i mention it.
Cheers Johnny, big thanks to Thomas, who helped relay this news to me.
Your persistent J, I’ll give you that. You weren’t involved in Watergate by any chance?
i hope there is some small print somewhere to say he has to change agents.jp bernes could prove to be a nuisance in the future.
I Think something is not rite….i think this deal has collapsed…maybe a late change of heart form either parties
how long to u think nasri will take to adapt to the rought anf tumble of the premier league? as he has only played in the french league.
are we gunna have to wait a while until we see his true colours??
Sanderson, give yourself a rest. You have been very comprehensive with your coverage of this. You must be buggered!
J,
Is this definitely being announced tomorrow?
I cant take much more of this transfer LOL
i do hate the way the club are sometimes so slow to make news public, although i have to say id prefer the club to be run as it is, rather than the chelsea way in which they put any old rubbish up.
this transfer has been dealt with so poorly really. it could and should have been wrapped up before the euro’s.
im looking forward to hearing whether nasri is coming because of Hleb leaving, or whether AW had planned to go for Nasri anyway as an addition to the squad. im sure its the former.
“how long to u think nasri will take to adapt to the rought anf tumble of the premier league? as he has only played in the french league.
are we gunna have to wait a while until we see his true colours??”
The French league is more physical than most of the other european leagues so it shouldent be as massive a transition as some1 coming from Spain or Portugal.
lightning kev,
you can be sure he will need time to settle. pires needed a whole season really before he started showing his true class. thats what concerns me slightly about the way our transfer dealing are going this summer – we are potentially losing EPL experienced players, and are gaining (ramsey and nasri so far) players with no EPL experience.
could be another transitional season.
It will be announced tomorrow from the report, and Marseille will spend the money on Lyon’s Hatem Ben Arfa, which is expected to be announced in the next two weeks.
Anyway guys, im off to sleep, glad you enjoyed the article. Let’s wake up tomorrow, to Arsenal.com finally adding the news.
although its usually confirmed in the afernnon. All the best
ahh, cheers johnny, dont see that much french football if im honest! :)
should i bet for a goal on his debut?? :P haha
Cheers J, nice one mate.
Hope he is a Arsenal player after I woke up :)
yeah, tomorrow, definitely tomorrow…I’m sure of it…
i wont believe it till i look on the arsenak website
i see your point mauel, although i still think helb will be playing for us next year, i see nasri as cover for rosicky and helb/replacement for eboue.
espesh with arshavin looking at going to barca as helb and arshavin are similar players.
JS, thanks! I really don’t know what to say. All these twists and turns must have given you a hell of a lot of work and yet you keep the site updated, pretty much ahead of everyone else. At least this is reassuring news since it’s from the father, despite a little lack of professionalism on his part. Maybe like us, he’s also too excited for the boy! :D
J.San….i dont know how u manage to get these updates…its really impressive….your blog has been added to my favorites for a few weeks now…thats cos ur blog is genuine and is usually d 1st when it somes to breaking news….bravo and keep up d good work my fellow gooner
“ahh, cheers johnny, dont see that much french football if im honest! :)
should i bet for a goal on his debut?? :P haha”
Your Welcome and dont worry neither do i but i watch a few games now and again, mostly just the big ones but it is physical, perhaps not as physical as the premier league and not even near as fast paced most of the time but much closer than Spain or Portugal (i dont really watch the German or Italian leagues that much so i duno about them).
As for the bet, you could but seein as he has a carear league and international goals to games ratio of 1 goal to every 10 games and last season a ratio of 1 goal to every 5 games it might be a bit hit and miss. You probably wont get great odds anyway cuz the bookies and media always pretend to expect people to score on their debut just to dampen the atmousphere if it actually happens.
Its a mess when the club are keeping secrets from the fans, and from everything i have seen it looks that way.
J.Sanderson said this on June 23, 2008 at 10:02 pm
You’re mistaken. We are The Arsenal and we don’t announce transfers etc until they’re completed. We stick to agreements about announcements. There haven’t been any real statements by Arsenal abount Nasri and the pictures that were on the web site (I saw them earlier before they were taken down and there was actually a third as well) were housed not published. He has signed but there’s a reason we can’t formally announce it yet.
btw great coverage of the transfer throughtout J. You’ve done a really good job covering it and should be proud.
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Anyway im off to watch movies until 4 in the mornin so when i wake up it’ll be 3 already and the deal will have been announced so there will be no sitting around nail biteing.
i can see nasri having a similar season to ryan babel last season.
we may need to be patient as we will see his talent in glimpses rather than any real sustained spell of form.
his 2nd season will be when nasri will come to prominence, much like babel is expected to this coming season.
those are my expectations anyway.
How do you see the pictures on the server?
EiN, I agree with you. The Arsenal way of handling transfers is to only announce it when it’s completely over and done with. We see the player together with the shirt number, player profile, pictures at the Emirates, Arsene quotes, club press release, etc etc etc, the entire package up on arsenal.com. That’s why I said the Eduardo transfer was a classic Arsene signing – no fuss, absolutely quiet, then boom, he’s our new #9, it’s only then that we found out about this “unknown”, oh wow, he scored all those goals before, then we got pretty excited about Arsene’s new coup. That’s how it should be conducted! Yes JS’s right, the club keep some secrets from us, of course they do, but for good reasons by and large.
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This may explain why the club have been very discreet about transfers: http://www.arsenalinsider.co.uk/arsenalinsider-news/dont-panic-stock-market-roolz-is-roolz-re-nasri-signing/
well done js well done as usual serving the gooner community well
i can’t belive until see him with arsenal’s teshirt
I have linked back to your excellent discloure regarding Samir’s father!
The likely cause of the confusion are the stock market rules governing quoted companies like Arsenal Holdings. Arsenal could be fined several million pounds if the Financial Services Authority found them in breech of the Disclosure and Transparency rules of Stock Markets.
My blog explains…
http://www.arsenalinsider.co.uk/arsenalinsider-news/dont-panic-stock-market-roolz-is-roolz-re-nasri-signing/
Keep up the good work guys!
Fabregas the king.
NOW HERE IS THE REAL REASON THIS TRANSFER HAS DRAGGED ON THIS LONG
OM knows that Arsenal has great interest and would want to sign this player really much so they are trying to push the price as high as possible so they could make more more from it… also trying to delay the deal a little to see if any other club indicates interest and place a bid for Nasri so that arsenal could make a higer bid other than that already made.
Wenger on his on part refuse to give in to such and decides to stick his guns on his initial price evaluation of the player and if possible see if the player’s price would drop if no one bids for him when the transfer season get closer to its end. He knows he didn’t perform at the euros so isn’t scared of loosing him to any club as they wouldn’t show interest.
The question here is ..Who would come out of this as the winner? Arsenal or OM ?? Both ways, Nasri wins…he would definitely be paid high at any club he goes. or continues to earn relatively high wages at OM if they decided not to sell him again.
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Anyone want to buy any Audi A3 alloys?
Why can’t barca learn that Arsenal has never been their calling and players from arsenal have never been a blast for them. Petit, Overmars, Henry..and so on.now hleb and Ade. Look like they have a special love for filling our purse with millions. I sure wouldn’t mind that. Someone tell them to keep pumpin the millions, we sure need it.
Here is one way, albeit cumbersome, to find images on arse.com.
all images that are on arsenal.com are under the virtual directory http://www.arsenal.com/images. Further the pictures are divided into sub-folders from a-z. So the pictures for nasri were under the subfolder n, pictures for fab will be under ‘f’ and so on. I’m pretty sure with a little creative URL editing you can find pictures if they are on the arse.com server.
For ex. the nasri pics were uploaded as:
http://www.arsenal.com/images/n/nasri1.jpg
If any fan used this technique I salute their zeal. Though, in all probability they had a more sophisticated way to do this
hopefully nasri is ours tomorrow!
J. Sanderson your doing really great work. Keep it up.
Several sources are saying 2pm will be the time he is announced, but frankly anytime is good enough :D
I take it no-one hosted the picture’s that arsenal had on there servers then.
Just saw on goal.com that wenger was watching David silva on sunday as i thought he would anyone think we will get him or if he’s worth getting.
“anyone think we will get him or if he’s worth getting.”
Only if Ade leaves because
A. If Ade doesnt leave and we sign him we have an over congested forward group and some1 wont get played, plus it’ll block the young talent coming through, and
B. We probably cant afford him unless Ade goes in which case we should be atleast 20mil up (probably quite a bit more).
Personally id rather hold on to Adebayor than buy Villa but if we cant hold onto Ade then Villa should be one of the top picks as a replacement, especially since hes expressed a desire to play for us.
2pm you say J? Nice one!
It’s a mystery… Haha i think Kompany’s talk also going the same way as Nasri’s.Who knows… There’s still some great players to come. Experienced,proven,reliable, not necessary a superstar.
to be a gooner,let’s help our team and Arsene.
keep quiet until official announce.
actualy his price cnt go up because he has a release fee clause
now to buy CB
Almunia
Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy
Silva Fabregas Gilberto Nasri
Van Persie Adebayor
Sub: Fabianski, Song, Senderos, Rosicky, Diaby,Bendtner, Vela, Walcott
This agent is worse than most. Don’t be surprised when, after 1-2 seasons, this guy is pushing for giant raises and then a transfer to the usual “predator” clubs. Nasri may be an exquisite talent, but I have nothing but foreboding about this signing.
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After another sleepless night your article cheered me up no end. Nice’un as usual.
Has anyone noticed that Samir Nasri’s website looks craaaaaaaaaap.
Good news all round. Searching the arsenal.com image database for ‘nasri’ was genius.
When you consider your line-up for next season, don’t forget to pick Eboue for all your big games.
Sadly, I’m not joking.
great update again j!
hey j
what do you think about diogo the player for whom our bid failed and are the david silva rumours true?
If you are a stats guy, you will notice that Adebayor finished first in almost all stats all over europe.
If Ade mamanged to convert even half as much the chances he had last season, he would have an obscene & crazy goal tally (to blow our minds off).
There is a general feeling that Ade, like fabregas last year can easily be ‘coached’ how to convert all those chances into goals…and that will make him a prolific finisher come next season.
You should ask yourself why all the great(teachnical) coaches/managers from the leading clubs in Europe want him….. There must be something they know, and we naive gunners dont!!, but Wenger knows…hence the price tag shooting “overnight”.
Honestly, am with Wenger…use the Kitty available to hold on to your top class players……Ade should stay..he owes this to Wenger.
His career transformation will be another feather in Wenger’s cap …. plucking a player from relative obilvion (Monaco and the whole of Ligue 1 discarded him – even Togo)… and then mould him to a top class player….no way Ade should go, have faith guys, money is nothing, Arsenal have lots of it (how much transfer kitty does Wenger have, and still never uses it??)
Watch this space!!
Harrison, KenyaGunner
lets first get this deal rapped up and then look for other signings to bring in i would like to see us get mexes, gallas is mentally weak.
i only trust official site
1 hour and 53 minutes and something seconds until this news should be posted on Arsenal.com.
Great work and effort J.
Great article Sanderson! :)
It’s crazy to think about how long this deal has been dragging on. Hopefully it will be official today, but i have almost given up to see this on arsenal.com. It must be the worst hidden transfer deal in football ever and the longest one!
You can read a French text on Samir’s webstie, which is translated:
—
We are sorry to have acted hastily in announcing that Samir had signed with Arsenal, but Samir is still under contract with Olympique de Marseille so far.
An interview with Samir will be in the news here from the 1st July
The administrator
—
I don’t know where is the problem, but I am waiting for the official announcement.
I think Wenger must be looking at an English defender since he said no defender impressed him in EURO 08.
Gosh, that includes Gallas not impressing him.
lol
Anyone know what happening with the Nasri transfer, what going wrong with the deal now? I swear this deal has been almost done for like a month. Im a bit worried about the defence rather than attack thou, even if ade goes, we still got alot of attacking talent goals have never been a problem i dont think. But we aint got much cover in defence, like a back up LB, and another frist choice CB what do ppl think?
What do you think, it will be announced today??
Hey guys!! What do you think is it possible that Arsene would be interested in buying another attacking midfielder after he signed Samir Nasri?!! Arshavin & David Silva are still heavily linked to Arsenal.
I actually can’t make my mind up about signing another attacking midfielder. I don’t want to see Diaby and Eboué on those positions next season, they worked hard and performed as best as they could but I prefer to see them in their best position.
It seems that Ramsey is brought in for the central position and he’s going to be given his time. With Hleb leaving we have Rosicky, Nasri, Walcott left who can play in these positions. three would be enough but with a high possibility for injuries for Rosicky and Walcott I think we need another midfielder.
Squad 2008/2009:
1. Almunia
21. Fabianski
27. Eboué
3. Sagna
22. Clichy
30. Traoré
5. Kolo Touré
10. Gallas
6. Senderos
20. Djourou
17. Song
4. Fabregas
19. Gilberto
15. Denilson
2. Diaby
16. Ramsey
7. Rosicky
8. Nasri
32. Walcott
? David Silva/Andrei Arshavin/Arda Turan
or Nacer Barazite/Jack Wilshire/Mark Randall
9. Eduardo
12. Vela
11. van Persie
25. Adebayor
26. Bendtner
How do you prefer the Arsenal team to look like next season?!!
almunia for 1? ok
I dont think we need anymore wingers. we have vela,rosicky,nasri(prob),traore for left wing. And walcott,Nasri,eboue,barazite,Ramsey(he can play all over midfield. I cant see him playing many games in centre cos wenger normaly puts on wing first cos its easier out there. Plus we have randall and merdia to play on wing. I know some of these players are young but there no point in having them if we dont them. I rate Traore alot, think he should get games on left wing. What does every1 reckon ?
Moushin, Carlos Vela can play on the left. I don’t think we’ll see any more in midfield.
Dan – good point about Traoré, If Clichy will play a whole season as left back again he might as well play leftwinger. It’s true that we have all those youth players who can play in those positions and with a fit squad it’s no problem they can be subs.
I just don’t hope that due to injuries we have to play with Eboué or Diaby again. if we lose Walcott and Rosicky than we have to play Ramsey or Vela. I know their massive talents but against the big teams it’s going to be a problem.
It’s quite a dillemma, the season is long we need quality and experience. But we also have great talents who need to get a chance.
Internetgooner – With Mexico he plays as an attacker and I think he’s far more dangerous skipping past the last defenders than taking on 2 or 3 players on the wing.
ok now that this is nearly over. if adebayor leaves who do you think is his perfect replacement, and who do think we will get then. plus other possible signings, diogo, arshavin, arda turan??????
Total mystery. Lets just be patient and wait for the official announcement.
@ Mouhsin…and others.
Guys, this reply is meant for those who constantly slate Eboue…
Agreed, he had a poor season in his first season as a midfielder. Am I however the only person who beleives that he will be a revelation next season?
Why am I saying this? Here’s the answer.
Do you guys remember how much we slated Flamini in the 06/07 season, how much guys were venting all over the net that he’s just not good enough and needs to step-up or be sold? How quick times change…I was just reading Wengers comments when we signed Flamini as a 20yr old from Marseille in 2004…and his true to his comments, Flamini was exactly the strong/hard-worker Wenger has said in his statement.
As I always continue to say, we have to have faith. Eboue will come good, just like Hleb, Flamini and even suprise, suprrise Walcott!! they’ve all have had a awful entire seasons with Gunners,….would you be prepared to lose them now? not easily…these players have become revelations.
I know as football fans, we lack patience often times, and we’ve waiting for silverware long enough…..but mark my words…any new ‘world class’ player is worse off than an existing arsenal player. Wenger is doing everything to hold on to this squad.
Again, watch this space!
@ Mouhsin…and others.
Guys, this reply is meant for those who constantly slate Eboue…
Agreed, he had a poor season in his first season as a midfielder. Am I however the only person who beleives that he will be a revelation next season?
Why am I saying this? Here’s the answer.
Do you guys remember how much we slated Flamini in the 06/07 season, how much guys were venting all over the net that he’s just not good enough and needs to step-up or be sold? How quick times change…I was just reading Wengers comments when we signed Flamini as a 20yr old from Marseille in 2004…and his true to his comments, Flamini was exactly the strong/hard-worker Wenger has said in his statement.
As I always continue to say, we have to have faith. Eboue will come good, just like Hleb, Flamini and even suprise, suprrise Walcott!! they’ve all have had a awful entire seasons with Gunners,….would you be prepared to lose them now? not easily…these players have become revelations.
I know as football fans, we lack patience often times, and we’ve waiting for silverware long enough…..but mark my words…any new ‘world class’ player is worse off than an existing arsenal player. Wenger is doing everything to hold on to this squad.
Again, watch this space!
Yeh say cant play rosicky and walcott, then we should have nasri and and vela as back up along with ramsey. And if we need some older players we have eduardo who can play out wide if needed and also van persie. Depends if we play 442 or 433 nxt season. I reckon we should play troare left wing so we have a few options. If we brought say sliva aswell that would limt the chances for others players and they may not stay then. Still think we need a CB that italian CB good who played against spain chellini or somthing. Dont think we should sell ade unless we are gettin a world class replacement.
The Grench newspapers are saying that the deal will ot be announced untill July 1st. Dont why dont care anymore. This player better be something when he finally arrives and plays a game.
Oops thats French not Grench.
I hope not to see Diaby play on the wing this season as hes not comfortable playing there. Diaby is a great CM but hes not so good on the wing but thats not because hes a bad player imagine playing Theo or RVP as a CM they would do appallingly.
@ Kenyagunner… I am not constantly slating Eboué but he can’t play right midfielder it’s as simple as that. He doesn’t have the composure, the technique or the vision to create good attacks from the right. The only thing he has is power, speed and detirmination. He is a good full back, too bad for him Sagna is way better but I can only see him playing as a back-up for Sagna and maybe come in late in the game on the right to give some more defensive balans to the team… But we’ll see what happends maybe he and others are going to suprise us?
Dave! Where do you read this news?
what time do you rekon this deal with be confirmed today?
or will we have to weight until 1st July w
Strange that my comment did not make it here. Im suprised J thst you would remove my comment even though i was stating my OPINION!
So where is the signing J?
If we could wait from May to here, we can wait for two weeks.
On another blog. To be honest so many stories and rumours its become riddiculace. Everyone is becoming obsessed with this signing/non signing. Why Arsenal cant defuse this crap with a simple statement I dont know. Another example of the disegard they hold for their fans.
Dave! I think they (OM, Arsenal, Nasri) know better.
16.00 has arrived…. still no sign of Nasri on the arsenal website…. seen this boy play a number of times, very impressive player. Just need the official announcement!
Ro! I looked back my RSS-program and I find when Ramsey was annonuced. It was at 17 hours GMT. Be patient. :D
J.S! Do you anything new about Nasri? Both Arsenal’s and OM’s website is very calm and quiet.
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surprise surprise again youngguns lead ppl down the garden path, don’t claim things will be announced when they wont…its not a good look this guessing game you like to practice. Stick to reporting about young players who are Arsenal players eh..
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So nobody hosted the pictures, some people. lol
Another day comes, another day goes and still no Nasri. I am beginning to think its time for Arsene to knock this one on the head and turn his attentions to someone else. JP Bernes is dragging this out in order to embarass, frustrate, humiliate and make a monkey out of our boss. Wenger should tell him and Nasri to f*** off. Either you want to play at Arsenal or you don’t, it ain’t that difficult.