Samir Nasri has claimed that Arsenal have been more focused on their financial situation then they are on strengthening to challenge their rivals.
The midfielder was one of a number of Gunners to be sold for a profit whilst the Emirates Stadium was being paid for, with Manchester City being the main customers, taking Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, and Kolo Toure also.
There were reports that Nasri didn’t want to leave the club, but the decision was made for him, and the French international has now taken a shot at his former side.
He claimed: “We must also take into account the fact that when I was in Arsenal, we did not fight on equal terms with Chelsea or Manchester United.
“The bosses of the club have always wanted to have healthy finances, they never wanted to go into debt. So they obviously did not recruit like the others.”
Our club went through a period of selling, whilst Arsene Wenger managed to somehow keep us in the top four despite others constant investment, but now that the Stadium has more-or-less been paid off, we have begun to invest more strongly.
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil come in for a combined £74 Million, but that has still been dwarfed by our rivals, and our club has still been more subtle in the market than the remainder of the top six.
Despite all the spending by Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Tottenham, we finished above every one of them last season, with only surprise-package Leicester City denying us from the Premier League title.
Stan Kroenke has stated on more than one occasion that we are unable to match the spending of our rivals, which we know is simply not the case considering our revenue, and you can’t really disagree with Nasri’s comments unfortunately.
Would Kroenke spend if it assured us of success? Does he simply only believe in business? Do we think finishing outside the top four would convince him to alter his spending restrictions?
Pat J
so if a club doesn’t want to go in debt it means they prioritise money over footbapl.
Lol
even the richest clubs like Real Madrid are in debt, why not Arsenal? we prioritize on making and saving money than winning trophies.. aren’t Madrid or Barcelona winning any trophies? how while they are in very big debt?
this shows what’s the priority in this club, MONEY
So there was a discussion earlier, which I think was much more productive than to talk about what this t**t has to say.
So let’s see:
Giroud has been in immense form, no one can deny that. However, we’ve also witnessed how well he performs coming on from the bench. So he is a pickle.
Walcott I think should start IF he was fit enough. However, 2-3 weeks sidelined I reckon he will start from the bench, I have no problems with this. We can’t deny that Walcott has been in good form; even when he was quite invisible, he managed to score. He’s our 2nd best scorer.
Perez, what more can I say than 5 goals, 6 assists in 12 appearances. Only half of those were starts. So this lad deserves to start. I think he has what we need from our forwards: vision. This is something Theo, Danny and OX definitely lack.
Welbeck cannot start. He just got back from an injury. Nor does the OX deserve a start.
So based on form and recent injury comebacks and lack of fitness, I would pick:
Perez – Özil – Iwobi
——- Sanchez
or if Özil won’t get a start because he’s been ill for so long then:
Perez – Iwobi – Sanchez
——– Giroud
I would like to see
Ox….. Ozil…… Lucas
……… Alexis
I like Giroud a lot but I think he is better as a Super Sub. Alexis has scored lots of goals from up front and deserves to start up front
I don’t understand why Wenger rarely starts Lucas. It’s very annoying
I think it’s because of team shape and tracking back. He seems to be a player who likes to be at the end of moves, someone likened him to Poldi, I can see that a little.
He isn’t really one for being one of a link in the build up play, as he wants to be closer to the GK when he receives the ball. He can be a bit like Walcott, with those diagonal runs. The thing I like about Perez is, besides needing to improve on certain things, he seems a real team player, biding his time and making most of fleeting moments. We have a player out on loan, who thought he was too big for the role that Perez is trying to launch himself from.
Well, if anyone knows what it is like to prioritise finances over football, it’s Samir Nasri.
LOL !!
he won 2 EPL titles.. and our years without it keeps counting
Even though he didn’t want to go into details,we he said is true and before you call him names,remember he said that he didn’t want to go but the club made that decision for him,that’s why he always takes a swipe at Arsenal. Which other ex Arsenal player does that more than him? If you say he prioritised money over trophies,how come he left Arsenal and won two premier league titles and yet Arsenal won none? Have you ever heard any contract issue at Man City? Unlike Arsenal. These players have a very short career in the world of football,there’s no way you can claim to be a big player with a trophy in your cabinet.
Its certainly true that Nasri earned far more when he moved to Man sh!tty, however I seem to recall that he was “SOLD” by the club, NOT that he requested a transfer, the board and Wenger wanted to cash in and thats what they did both with Nasri and a number of other players who were intregal to our squad at that point. I seem to remember the farce that was the selling of Van Persie amounted to a paltry 25 million profit for us, only six million short of what we paid for Perez. So the question really is not how much of a tw@t Samir Nasri is, after all he like all footballers are really all about the money and have very short lifespans, but more about the club making a profit on everything it does and NOT wanting to extend its reach too far towards champions league and EPL succsess. If Arsenal win the premier league then the expectations rise and that means CL……….and THAT means spending money that they just dont want to spend, yes prices are inflated but thats the way of the world, again I ask where has the BT SPORTS MONEY GONE? the club had an 80 million war chest to spend on top of its profit last summer, thats not taking into consideration how much was left over from the summer before, and they then had an injection of cash from the BT sports deal of circa 120 million on top of the 80 million so, where did that vast sum of money go? It certainly was,nt spent on top notch players (Mustafi aside). So where is the money going? Arsenal have been listed as the 4th or 5th richest club in the world, but looking at our squad you may not think so, half the squad are mid table mediocrity at best and while the other half may be world class we can win things with only half a world class sqaud. its been clear to me for a number of years since David Dein left us and especially since silent stan cam in that the main aim of the club is predominantly about making money staying in the black and minimising expenditure. Expectations rise when we are sucsessful and that cost money, far safer to sit in top four, buy players that may win something now and again and charge the fans as much as the club can get away with, and spend the minimum possible. The board members ALL to a man make huge dividends on the club each year and the majority shareholder doesnt have to invest to take a small cut of the profits each year and the club is worth its weight in gold to him.
Why would they mess with this system by being as silly as to attempt to win the premier league by buying in big money huge wage bill players who …just might not return thier investment immediatly ….why indeed?