EPL Man United, Man City or Arsenal: Which Club Is Best Fit for Samir Nasri?

The Samir Nasri transfer saga is quickly becoming the most convoluted of this years window. With both Manchester clubs known suitors of the livewire French international many questioned if Gunners manager Arsene Wenger had the fortitude to rebuff their persistent advances.

Nasri himself simply fanned the flames of the transfer rumour fire when admitting that, with only a year left on his contract, he was analysing his options.

Nasri’s spectacular opening months to the 2010/2011 season, in which he was cited by many as the Gunners most palpable threat led to a sudden implosion in the 23 year old’s reputation. However, a poor last few months, which coincided with Arsenal’s dramatic slump drew inevitable queries over the Frenchman’s future.

Today the story has shifted somewhat, as Nasri flies out with his team-mates on the first leg of Arsenal’s tour of Malaysia, after Wenger’s blank assertion that both Nasri and club captain Cesc Fabregas will be at the club next season.

Rumours as ingrained as those surrounding Nasri wont die as easily as that, however, and it is therefore likely that the titanic struggle will persist for the foreseeable future.

What better time therefore to do a quick comparison of the club’s vying for Nasri’s signature. Analysing the symbiosis of player and club and ultimately analysing the most viable destination for British football’s most in demand player.

City, United or Arsenal Samir?… You decide.

The Champions: Nasri to Old Trafford to Fill Paul Scholes Shaped Hole?

Although United’s early kamikaze spending in this year’s transfer window has served to reaffirm their “favourites” tag ahead of next season, the most palpable malaise has yet to be addressed.

In last season’s Champions League Final the flawed - for against a team like Barcelona that is exactly what it is - midfield was ruthlessly exposed time and time again by Guardiola’s marauding hobbits.

Following the retirement of the last custodian of the central realm, the necessity of a new central midfield playmaker is top of the agenda.

Samir Nasri would certainly help to fill this imbalance in the centre, employed in tandem with a more defensive minded player of the Fletcher or Carrick ilk, at liberty to exploit the space further up the pitch.

Nasri would also be beneficial to United in terms of his adaptability as he could also be employed in an elevated position on one of the wings, either on his favoured left or to cut in from the right. And with the premium placed on specialist left footers at Old Trafford (of which Ryan Giggs is the only recognised first team - no I am not including Gabriel Obertan - winger in the squad).

The main obstacle to Nasri’s proposed move to the arch enemy, therefore, would be twofold. One, Arsene Wenger’s blind assertion that Nasri will never move to Old Trafford, and secondly the other candidates on the club’s radar to fill the identical central position.

In my opinion it is the second, more than the first which will put the kibosh on the Nasri to United deal.

At various points throughout the summer United have been linked with a plethora of players in the search for a replacement for Paul Scholes. Luka Modric, Danielle de Rossi, Yann M’Villa, Steven Defour and Wesley Sneijder have all been linked to the club in the last month, but it is the latter for which a deal now seems most concrete.

Sneijder, the national dailies are now reporting, has become expendable at the San Siro, ironically after the arrival of Gunners target Ricky Alvarez at Inter.

Although it is rumoured that the deal would set United back a club record 35 million, and in so doing take their summer spending to an astronomical 90 million, you cant really put a price on greatness. Wesley Sneijder is the player United need. Although they would love Samir Nasri and he would undoubtedly improve their team, to fill the flawed midfield, if he is available, Wesley Sneijder is United’s man.

The Champions Elect: Nasri to Become The Next Citizen at the United Stadium?

In light of the new financial fair play regulations set to come into force from the start of next season, this summer brings the last opportunity for Sheik Mansour to indulge in the seemingly limitless spending by which his City era has been thus far defined.

Therefore the temperance, bordering on the restraint the club have thus far shown in their forays into the market appear to be a misnomer. A solitary deal has been concluded by the men at the United stadium, a 7 million deal to bring the last Arsenal invincible, left-back Gael Clichy, to the ground formerly known as Eastland’s.

Yet in recent weeks City have dominated the rumour sheets, chief amongst them a deal to rival United’s courtship of Nasri, which according to reports over the weekend was close to coming to fruition.

Nasri would most certainly adhere to the calibre of player that City are assembling as they plan their inaugural assault on next seasons Champions League, yet my reticence centres on the players already on the sky blues roster.

Nasri is, by trade an attacking midfielder be that centrally or a secondary role as a forward-thinking winger. This is all well and good, but the problem arises when you look at the two players that currently occupy Nasri’s two favoured position in the City first team’s 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 formation.

David Silva, the current left forward, and Yaya Toure the current forward thinking central midfielder were both bought last summer by City for a combined fee of £50 million. Both players, along with captain Carlos Tevez and centre-back enforcer Vincent Kompany were among the citizens players of the season last term. Both have astronomical wages that would make a mockery of any sustained position on the bench, with Silva said to be on around £140,000 a week and Toure on in excess of £200,000.

So where, therefore does that leave Samir Nasri?

With a projected £20 million fee and wages that would again eclipse the £100,000 mark, the Frenchman would sit in a similar boat to the aforementioned duo in that he would be an excepted first team starter. This would then cause City manager Roberto Mancini to shuffle his pack, most probably moving Toure out of his now favoured attacking role, and in to a more defensive capability, alleviating the largely ineffectual England international Gareth Barry from the side.

Barry would then join the legions of over-paid mediocrity currently lacerating City’s corridors, clogging up the wage bill and stalling the development of some of this countries once bright prospects. For that is the fallacy of the situation City have created, by paying good, but not great, players like Barry £100,000 they have priced him out of moving on as other potential suitors simply cant afford the wages.

Samir Nasri’s transfer to Manchester City would only serve to exacerbate the trend. 

The Current Club: Nasri to Spearhead Arsenal's Premiership Assault Next Season?

And so we come to Arsenal, and the man whose almost unparalleled tactical nouse elevated Nasri into the echelons of the Premiership most exciting players.

After Arsene Wenger put forward a £12 million package to lure young Nasri to the Emirates stadium in July 2008, the French international has flourished under his stewardship.

However, in reality, this past season is his first where you can truly say he has maintained a world-class level of performance. Admittedly in the precluding seasons he fulfilled a solid dependable role in Wenger’s side, portraying flashes of his now established brilliance, but it was only this term that said brilliance really came to define his game.

With only a year left on his contract, Nasri’s bargaining chip is a strong one. If he refuses to sign a new contract, then he could feasibly leave for nothing next summer as the hottest property on the free agent market, where he would find a new club almost instantly.

This would be unfair to Wenger and Arsenal, the manager and club who helped define Nasri the player.

If he did walk for nothing in the wake of the 2011-12 season, it would set a precedent for Arsenal that I do not know whether the club could recover from. It would send out a very clear message that they no longer have the stature to appease the world’s top stars and are now essentially a feeder club to the best teams in the world.

Can you imagine Arsenal’s other top stars such as Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas (providing he hasn’t already gone at this point), sticking around following such a blunt statement?

In terms of the team dynamic, too, I cannot envisage a setup that is more conducive to Nasri’s style of play, or a team in which he could so thrive. Arsenal’s unique passing style of football is as important to Nasri’s game as Nasri is to Arsenal’s.

Although as a United fan myself, I would love to see Nasri come to Old Trafford for the sake of a club and a player that I can't help but admire for the immediate future.