Why Nasri should leave

Tuesday, 07/06/2011

by Richard Leighton, Shoot’s Arsenal blogger

All the talk around Arsenal at the moment is about who wants to leave the club, with Samir Nasri making himself the centre of attention by using the media to flirt with, of all teams, Manchester United.

It’s a shame he’s chosen to go down that route but since he has, I would transfer list him in a second and then forget him in the next two.

If he thinks half a season of exceptional form gives him the right to demand parity with the top earners at a club renowned for its strict wage structure then he’s living in on another planet.

Frankly, we don’t need this type of character at the club, or in the dressing room, and by the comments he’s made, he will have already alienated some of his fan base.

Ashley Cole, William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor all took similar routes on their way out of Arsenal in recent times, and I think most football fans would agree these are characters that have shown themselves to be of the more unsavoury variety.

To lose Nasri, would we be cutting our nose off to spite our face? Shouldn’t we just give him the wages he wants? I can see the argument. After all, we are living in an era when some footballers are only in it for the money and occasionally for trophies.

One thing they are absolutely not in it for is loyalty, but because every Gooner knows this particular mercenary doesn’t want to stay due to his not getting as much as our beloved captain. To see us cave in would leave a bitter taste.

After all, we are talking about the World Cup-winning, game-changing, defence-splitting, goal-scoring, Spanish magician that has been superb for not only entire, but consecutive seasons, Cesc Fabregas.

Maybe if we changed our policy and paid sky high wages we would attract more talent to the club, and we wouldn’t have endured this barren run without silverware. 

As a club who plays it transfer dealing cards extremely close to its chest, who knows who we’ve missed out on in the past because of unwillingness to meet players’ salary demands?

If Nasri does indeed leave for a club that will massage his ego by give him the big fat pay cheque he believes he’s worth, the two words I would say as the door hit him on the way out are these: Alexander Hleb.

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