Wenger on Nasri: “Sometimes you have to be brave enough when everybody says he is not good.”
185 comments August 18th, 2008
Sometimes I worry that Wenger applies to the above principle to the likes of Emmanuel Eboue. IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU BRAVE ARSENE. IT MAKES YOU INSANE.
…anyway. After his impressive debut, all the talk this weekend has been about Nasri. In his post-match press conference, Arsene told the story of how he came to sign the midfielder:
“He had a bad season last year because he had meningitis. He was in hospital for two weeks.
He didn’t recover properly for three months and then they rushed him back to play. Of course he was not at the expected level. But the year before everybody wanted him. Sometimes you have to be brave enough when everybody says he is not good.
It is like Overmars. Samir did not have the best of seasons last year. But I saw him start his first game and he gave me an impression that you keep with you. When you see things, you have to go with your beliefs.â€
An act of faith, then. But that faith has already begun to be repaid, and have led Le Boss to compare Nasri to a former Marseille and Arsenal great:
“Samir looks intelligent and capable of having good acceleration. He sees a good vision of the game and that left flank suits him quite well. Maybe there is a bit of Robert Pires in him because he looks to be able to change direction very easily and a little bit the same style of run. He is a bit smaller, but there’s a bit of Pires in there.”
Nasri himself enjoyed his debut, and didn’t get the footballing culture shock he was perhaps expecting:
“I could not dream of a better start, to score in my first game after four minutes. Now I will have to continue week in and week out, and hopefully I can keep playing like that, it will be brilliant. There were not that many problems for me to adapt to playing in England. When I first met the boss, he said that maybe I would need a bit of time, maybe up to six months – but actually I felt really good straight away.”
It’s good that he’s feeling positive, but the cautious part of me suggests we wait and see how he fares on a rainy night in Bolton…
In non-Nasri news, well-connected journo Steve Stammers told ArsenalTV’s fans forum that any deal to sign Gokhan Inler is off. Which leaves… no-one. Hurrah!
