Arsenal FC's Samir Nasri: It's All About the Money

With the possible exception of the annual Cesc Fabregas saga, Samir Nasri has become the center of prolonged, dramatic, and certainly the most complex transfer saga at Arsenal.

The reason initially given in the press for the Frenchman’s desire to depart the Emirates was simply money. Samir was unhappy with the paltry £90,000 per week wages that the club were offering him, and so, in his disgust, he decided to see if the grass was really greener away from Ashburton Grove.

But wait!

No, says Samir, it’s all about ambition! Arsenal cannot give me the opportunity to win things, and since “with no titles under your belt, you can't be in the list for the Ballon D'Or,” I must look or a move away from Arsenal.

Before proceeding, let us discard the absurdity of Nasri’s comments about the Ballon d’Or. I am not sure who, other than Samir himself, believes that he is playing at a level comparable to Lionel Messi. But, as this comment is completely ridiculous, I’ll move on to much more important matters.

The comments about being hungry for trophies and success are almost equally silly, but at least we can reasonably identify where they are coming from and what motivated him to give such a meaningless line to the press.

Clearly, it is only PR babble. A line of hokum like this is comparable to when players suddenly retract their adamant transfer requests and claim, “I am pleased with who the club has brought in, and now I can see that this place has real ambition.” Usually, players are rubbing their hand when they say this, as they’ve strained it by recently signing a healthy new contract.

Like most of what public figures say, Samir, or rather his agents, elegantly and laboriously crafted what he said to News of the World to pander to the common fan who was convinced that, like most athletes, he was purely driven by money. Fortunately, most supporters did not buy into the propaganda, and Nasri’s relationship with them looks to be permanently damaged.

As I hope Samir knows—and he probably does, considering that he has played football at a high level almost every day for years—football is a team sport. Indeed, Lionel Messi is brilliant, but he does not stand a chance of winning a 1 v.11 matchup. Neither does he stand a chance of carrying his team to victory if he is playing with 10 clones of Manuel Almunia. Quite a significant reason for Nasri’s success is that he has been playing with a supporting cast comprised of top-level players. Face the fact Samir:

You can’t win titles by yourself.

And because, deep down, Samir probably (hopefully) knows this, he is seeking to make the most of the extremely small opportunity he has as a footballer to sign a contract for a lot of money. That much is understandable, even if he disrespects the supporters by lying to them about it. And if that quest takes him away from the Emirates, so be it. He will be a small, relatively insignificant footnote in the history of the club. Someone will take his place. Other players will be bought. Arsenal can still win.

So, when push comes to shove, most Arsenal supporters will—and should—disregard Samir Nasri’s pandering comments. We’ve survived without Adebayor, Petit, Hleb, and everyone else who was supposedly too good for the club. Arsenal is easily good enough to survive the departure of a player like Samir Nasri. And if he leaves, which continues to look more and more likely, it will not be because of some sort of “ambition” which Arsenal can not provide him with. No, it will be because of a simple, tried-and-true, always-present reason:

It’s all about the money.