Arsenal star Nasri leaves the door open for shock transfer to rivals Man United
ARSENAL midfielder Samir Nasri admits he could be willing to sever ties with the north London club and would consider a controversial move to Manchester United should the reigning Premier League champions make a “concrete” offer.
The former Marseille star, who joined Arsenal in the summer of 2008 for £15.8m, has one year left on his current contract and is thought to be seeking a deal that would bring him in line with the club’s top earners such as Spain World Cup winner Cesc Fabregas and last season’s top goalscorer Robin van Persie.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger last week confirmed that talks had reached deadlock but that under no circumstances would the player be sold to United.
Nasri, however, appears open to the idea of switching allegiances.
He said: “Let’s find out if their interest is true first, and then we’ll talk about it.
“I don’t know if I will sign a new contract. Anyway, the discussions are on-going. For the moment, I don’t want to think about this.
“We will speak about it after the match with Poland [tomorrow]. Do I want to go to United? We should see if their interest is real and if it is concrete first.”
Nasri was Arsenal’s outstanding player during the first half of last season when he contributed 13 goals by the turn of year, but his influence diminished as the campaign wore on and found the net just once in his last 18 games once he was shunted out to the wing when Fabregas had recovered from injury.
Despite that dip in form the 23-year-old was voted into the PFA team of the year and heads a list of creative schemers, which also includes Tottenham’s Luka Modric and Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder, who have been linked with summer moves to Old Trafford.
Although Sir Alex Ferguson is yet to confirm his interest United left-back Patrice Evra last month encouraged his international colleague to turn his back on Arsenal and join United in order to win trophies.
Nasri played in France’s 1-1 draw in Belarus on Friday and is expected to feature in tomorrow’s friendly in Poland; it is anticipated that talks will resume upon his return.