Upon completing his move to the footballing mecca of the Northern Hemisphere, the Etihad Stadium, (does anyone else appreciate the irony that Etihad reportedly means United?), Samir Nasri has tried to ingratiate himself with his new supporters by insulting his previous paymasters.
The 24-year-old Frenchman stated:
‘I can see they are really passionate and it reminds me a little bit of Marseille. Arsenal have good fans, but not that passionate since they moved from Highbury to the Emirates. I remember when we played against City, when we lost 3-0, the crowd was amazing. That is what I want. When you play football it is for a good atmosphere.’
Apparently, us Gooners aren’t as passionate as our Mancunian friends. Also, it seems that Nasri likes his men with lots of tattoos;
‘They’ve got tattoos, the fans, of Man City. That’s what I like.’
Each to their own, Samir, each to their own.
You can’t blame him for trying to win over the new support by telling them how much he likes their tattoos, or that there is nothing sweeter than the sound of 40,000 drunk Mancs singing Blue Moon whilst stroking the aforementioned tattoos and winking seductively at the players.
But did he need to stick the knife into the backs of his old supporters?
For a start, Nasri never even kicked a ball at Highbury – why he even had to bring that up I’ll never know. And as for atmosphere, someone needs to point out to the snivelling little brown-nose that last season, in an independent study, Arsenal fans are (on average) a whole 6 decibels louder than their counterparts in Manchester. Here’s the proof – (click here)
I don’t know about you, but I’d have much more respect for the man if he just ‘fessed up and said; ‘you know what? City have tripled my wages. I like to go home after a hard days training and rub used £50 notes over my body as I dream about big hairy Northerners with lovely tattoos. That’s why I’ve moved.’
Instead he’s dressed it up as something completely different. He’s tried to make it sound like this transfer is purely about sporting reasons. Well, Samir, it’s quite clearly not.
Considering all this has led me to think long and hard about what it must be like to be a supporter or player for a super-rich club.
At what point do you say; ‘it’s all about the money for me’, turn your back on your team-mates and go off in search of that big pay day? And how can you justify it? Why not come clean and be honest with us; after all, most of us aren’t stupid.
And, if you’re a supporter, at what point does the team you’re following stop being your team? We’ll see the City fans gleefully crowing about their achievements, much in the way we’ve seen Chelski do over the last decade. But when does the act of winning become more important than earning your win through graft and determination?
I don’t care what City go on and do over the coming years. I’m sure they’ll do pretty well. After all, they are paying top dollar for their success. But after the initial buzz of winning wears off, will it feel as sweet? Sadly the answer to that, judging by Chelski fans, is probably yes. But we know, and they know, that they haven’t really earned it. It’s like buying all the tickets to the raffle and then jumping around the room when, surprise surprise, you win all the prizes.
When, eventually, we get back on the trophy podium, we can be proud of what we win. Why? Because we’re earning our success. We know when we look at our team that we helped to build it. They are an extension of us and our support. All the money in the world can’t replicate that.
Enjoy your success at City, Samir. You really, really haven’t earned it.
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Fantastic post couldn’t put it better myself. Hilarious and true, his reasons for leaving are pitiful.
Brilliant post, so true!
One of the best Blog posts I’ve read in a long long time. Funny and true. Good Work.
brilliant! brilliant!
I have a new name for him, “Somemore” Nasri, “Somemore” money Nasri…
ambition. If I were him, with that £180k per week that he makes, he ought to eat as many pies as he can (pork pies that is )so that his ass can expand to keep the bench at eastlands very warm indeed!
he’s a muslim so he won’t eat pork. but then he can do anything for money even r**e himself.
I completly agree with Nasri so many times our teams needed the help of the supporters, but it’s just so quiet at the Emirates. I can’t understand why away supporters often make more noise than us. Hate Nasri for leaving for money, but these are true words fellow gunners, we need to look at ourselfs on this one and sing!!
I invite Nasri to sit on a sharp stick.
Actually yes it was necessary and it’s something every gooner should actually look through their bitterness and listen to because it’s not just Nasri who has said that, Viera, Pires, Henry and a number of our other legends have said the same thing about the Emirates. Nasri most likely got that from listening to players like Clichy and Viera.
Keown, wright, Wilson and a whole host of other ex players ones we respect and admire have come out and said on a number of occasions that Arsenal fans have become complacent (in the nicest terms) to downright ignorant with a false sense of entitlement in the worst, while those ex-players would never come out and openly insult us they have said lots of times in their columns and on TV that we have become very fickle and selective about our support. We boo our own players for making a few mistakes, we immediately turn on players like Nasri for even the first sign they may be considering other options. Viera has come out and said he wanted to work in Manchester as a coach because city are the future and city fans are passionate and make themselves heard.
He is right. I attend as many home games as possible and the last time actually felt any kind of unity and passion in the emirates was when we played Barcelona, look at the effect that had on our team. We beat the best team in the world because we kept screaming and singing at the top of our voices even after going down one – nil.
I mean I’ve been told shut up and stop singing on a number of occasions by other gooners in the stadium, I’ve been told to stop waving my scarf and I’ve nearly got into fights for still singing while everyone else is shouting abuse at the players on our bench and Wenger.
City are on the cusp of greatness, there’s an excited buzz around the Etihad stadium and they sing and scream for pretty much 90+ minutes even when they’re losing their.
Gooners have may not have lost their passion I know I haven’t but we have completely lost our unity and if you look around the blogs and read comments or even listen to other people in the eimrates you’ll see we no longer sing with one voice. One section are screaming for Arsene to buy, another section are screaming for him to be fired and then the old school section like me sing the names of the players and the club unflinchingly because we want our club to do well.
There is a poison in our support that has been developing over the last 6 seasons and what the fans don’t realize is our late season fade-aways are as much down to us turning against our team when they lose or draw as it has with our players losing confidence. We’re the only people that can lift the heads of our players and we don’t do that anymore, we turn on them and demand they’re sold instead.
We need new supporters or a new attitude, the Arsenalisation of the Emirates was an attempt to do that but we still have a case of completely selling all tickets for a match but only 2/3’s of the seats being filled.
U da man bongo, im not one with words but i’ll sing till i die! 100% spot on, keep up the good work!
Sad but true words from nasri.. Many time I cringe at how quiet the emirates gets sometimes. Its alarming. The fans are not nearly as passionate or as hungry as I’d like them to be, I’m afraid.
But bongo, fact and Steve…. that’s not why he left the club. He didn’t go to Manchester City for the atmosphere did he. That’s pure bs. If he wanted to play in a much louder stadium he would have waited a year and gone to Villa or Everton or Stoke for free, who all have smaller stadiums than City but make much more nose.
This is a smoke screen. He took the money and the promise of some trophies and now he’s slagging off his old supporters because it’s going to get him in with the new lot. That’s what the article is about, not whether or not the atmosphere is good enough at the Emirates.
And whilst you have a fair point, there could and should be more unity at our home games amongst support, you have to remember that it’s an individual choice of supporters how they like to watch their games. In South Africa they have the vuvuzelas, in Russia they all blow on whistles, in Newcastle they guzzle lager and get their moobs out. Just because some of the Arsenal fans aren’t as vociferous as others, they’re still there supporting their team.