Samir Nasri has lifted the lid on the bust-up with William Gallas that led to the year-long rift between the two players at the Arsenal. And Nasri has also revealed what happned when he had a tear-up with Thierry Henry.
In-form Nasri has given the Daily Mail an exclusive interview and very enlightening it is too. He said: “I had a problem with William Gallas. I had an argument with Thierry Henry about a seat on the team bus. But after that with Thierry it was cool. We had a misunderstanding.
“But, yes, I had a problem with Gallas. I will not say hello to him again. Against Tottenham we did not speak. For a year at Arsenal we did not speak. Maybe, because he was the second captain of the national team, he had something to do with that. I don’t know.”
Nasri says the row with Gallas came after the defenders book came out and in it he criticised France’s Euro 2008 problems on the attitude of some of the national team’s younger players. But he adds that he soon made it up with Thierry following a heated discussion about who sits where on the team bus.
“When I arrived with the national team Thierry was injured with a back problem. He wasn’t there. So when I came, I was sitting in one place. I didn’t know it was Thierry’s place. Then Thierry comes back and I’m sitting there, and he talks to me like, ‘That’s my place’. And I said, ‘Well, it doesn’t have your name on it’. But then he explained to me that he had been sitting there for 12 years and that it was his favourite seat and I said, “OK, no problem”. I said he could take his seat, and he told me to sit next to him. We will watch a DVD.
“For me, there was no reason for it to be in Gallas’s book. If I ever write a book I will not talk about what happened about a seat on a bus. For me there is no point. He can talk about Chelsea, Marseille or Arsenal but not about being on the team bus or in the dressing room. There is no point in doing that.
“We had been involved in arguments before then. During training at Euro 2008, although after that I
thought everything was fine. When I arrived at Arsenal it was perfect but then the book came out and I told him I didn’t agree with what he had done in the book. We had another argument and we decided not to talk to each other again.
“When I don’t agree with someone I just tell the person, face to face, that I have a problem. Because I like honesty. I like to be straight with people, although for the people I love I have a big heart.”
Much like the Gooner nation have a big heart for you, Samir…
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