Nasri sale could be good business for Arsenal

Of course it’s sad to see a quality player like Nasri leave, but considering we got £25million of Man City’s dirty money for a player they could’ve had for free in a year’s time, I think Arsenal could be laughing. That’s if the money is re-invested, that is.

Money is basically no object for City, so presumably they won’t mind too much paying that much for something of a one-season wonder who, as far as I can see, has no obvious place in their team. But it’s amusing for us, I suppose. Nasri might talk about the more passionate fans in Manchester, but sitting on the bench won’t get you too many cheers.

In a 4-3-3, which City are most likely to play, in one variant or another, there are four positions Nasri can fill.

Left or right of the midfield three, where he will compete with the creative, skillfull David Silva and the powerhouse goalscorer Yaya Toure. James Milner and Gareth Barry are also there as backups. It’ll be quite a feat forcing his way past all those.

And left or right of the front three, he will have to compete with Sergio Aguero, Mario Ballotelli, Adam Johnson and occasionally James Milner again. Just where does he fit in? And what is his best role?

If City want another creative player, they might have come to the wrong place. Nasri only has 16 assists in three seasons at Arsenal, providing just five last year in his best season. His strength is neither in playing a raking ball forward, or running to the byline and getting a cross in. Before adding goals to his game last year, Nasri was little more than a slow midfielder who made safe sideways passes.

Granted though, he has a decent strike on him and knows how to get into the box, something he was not too often encouraged to do at Arsenal, but something that might serve him well at City.

Anyway, considering the options he has ahead of him at City, I’m disappointed we didn’t ask for someone like Adam Johnson or James Milner in return. Johnson in particular is the kind of direct winger sorely needed at Arsenal and is vastly underrated by Roberto Mancini. I don’t know why Wenger doesn’t try these swaps more often, if he seems to struggle so much to simply find players to sign on their own. Thiago Alcantara or Javier Mascherano also might have been a decent shout in the Fabregas deal, since Barca obviously weren’t willing to part with too much cash, but have many players on their wage bill who are somewhat surplus to requirements at the Nou Camp.

Well, it’s too late to speculate about what might have been now, but we do know there is plenty of money to spend, and still enough time to give gooners something to smile about. We’re in the Champions League now and can use that to attract better players. While the result last night was good news, the performance still shows we’re less good than last year.