Football is a very tribal sport; we sing songs about our rivals, wear our colours, mark our territory and even bodies to show our allegiances.
Every so often a player crosses the divide and causes uproar, Cantona joined Manchester United from Leeds and went on to become a legend at Old Trafford, years later Alan Smith made the same move despite being ‘Leeds through and through’.
Smith forever ruined his reputation with Leeds fans and there were grumblings from fans when it was rumoured he could be making a move back to Elland Road this summer.
Gallas has probably been in more London postcodes than a black cab having hopped from Chelsea to Arsenal to Tottenham and Luis Figo was pelted with a pig’s head during an ‘El Clasico’ game in 2002 for jumping ship to Real Madrid from Barcelona.
No matter how much we frown upon it, players do cross enemy lines and it looks like Samir Nasri is ready to join the ever growing list as it is being reported that he will tell Arsene Wenger that he wants to move to Manchester United later today.
In the Premiership players moving between the top teams has become quite a trend; Carlos Tevez swore he would not join United’s rivals Liverpool but instead opted to join Man City whilst Fernando Torres’ move to Chelsea from Liverpool was quite a shock even if the rivalry between the two sides was relatively new.
Previously I looked at the Nasri transfer as a knock to Arsenal fans but in all honesty it is the natural progression of a player who wants to better himself, Nasri has stated that he wants to move to win trophies and further his career and sees United as the place to do this.
United have gone from strength to strength whilst Arsenal have faltered and stagnated in recent years, failing to win a trophy in the last 6 years so the fact that the Telegraph are reporting that Nasri will meet Arsene Wenger later today to announce that he wants to move to Old Trafford should not come as such a surprise.
How many times in the past 2/3 seasons in match previews have we written that games between United and Arsenal lack the spark of previous games due to the absence of players like Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira? Whilst this is a major factor, another reason for the decline in the rivalry between the two teams is because Arsenal are falling away as rivals.
In footballing terms too Arsenal seem to be falling behind and have lost a number of stars in recent years and with Wenger’s reluctance to bring in new players the gap is widening. It isn’t being helped by the fact that they are selling players to teams that are looking to usurp their place in the top 4 in Man City let alone to teams who they consider title rivals.
If Nasri moves to Manchester United it will be more of an embarrassment to their fans. As Scholes said for all their ‘pretty’ football it is the more ‘functional’ United that have turned his head. For United we will be gaining a top player and again a chance to hold one over Arsenal that one of their best players wanted to and subsequently joined us.
In terms of Nasri not joining a ‘rival’ team its laughable, the rivalry has been dying for a while and selling him to Man City to ensure he doesn’t end up in Sir Alex’s grasp as is being reported could prove a worse move for Arsenal.
The move wud be beneficial to nasri and united, our Gaffer is a master and would brg out the best in nasri even more than a clever but short sighted wenger, we win trophies son ! here is the place to be ,city AND chelsea has no HISTORY,Liver-FOOL fans haven’t had a league title in 22yrs so we r the only option ! we r not fans , here we r FAMILY ,RED BLOOD ! glory GLORY manutd ,from the MANU Family Trinidad.
Nasri would be a good signing but I have my doubts if he can play in a 2 man midfield. I’d prefer Modric but if we were to get Nasri instead I would not complain. Also, I hope Sir Alex considers getting a DM, we’ve lacked the bite in midfield which would have been useful against Barca.
Nasri should join man unt 4 his goodness,aplayer of his caliber should be having some silverwires,strive &join were u belongs to
Buy Nasri & please sell Carrick. He’s useless ad a DM and equally useless as an AM. All he does is play diagonal balls. The speed of our counter attacks have slowed down. Nasri would be the key to make us ruthless again.
signing of Nasri is grat opotunit 4Man-u & Nasri
Wenger has for the past few years tried to bring forward a team full of young players to challenge the premier league rivals and he has succeeded, but not quite. He could only guarantee them a top four finish and nothin else. The situation in which arsenal are in now was bound to happen one or the other day. They can only become a ‘feeder club’ from now if Wenger doesnt bring in quality experienced players instead of giving chance to thier young players.
I think United are very keen to bring in Sneijder but his wages are the only obstacles. Nasri can play in a two man midfield coz he has played before. But he was forced to move into the wings in most of the matches. He could be a better option financial wise as he would come cheap.
It is great pleasure 4 me 2 hear that Nasri may play for Man United this season.Here is Old Trafford where Premier Cup is about 2 claim itself as “the Man United favorite food”Do you know why? Ask Chelsea,the answer is there.
I’m a Leeds fan and we pushed Smithy to go there as they were willing to pay the full fee upfront no one else would. This was put to Alan and he accepted. There was no way he could have stayed with us at that time in his early twenties and knocking on the door of regular International football. The Nasri situation is entirely different – he’s not a home grown Arsenal player – imagine if Wilshere did it? In any case, he has choices, Smith had very few – it was part of his contract that he go to the highest bidder and that was MU. Don’t get me wrong it will always hurt, whether Smithy comes back or not, but Leeds was such a mess and ge gave us his £1m sign on fee. Greedy Kewell went to Galatasaray and picked up a medal for doing nothing in the Champions League with Liverpool!!!!