Media reports are suggesting that Manchester City are about to complete the double signing of Arsenal duo Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy.
For Arsenal fans it must be worrying times with all this speculation linking their players with moves away from the Emirates.
Leaving
Arsenal already look set to lose midfielder Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona this summer and now the French duo look likely to also head through the Emirates exit door. The fee for the duo has been mooted as £27million.
Contracts
Both Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy will be out of contract next summer. That means that Arsenal will need to sell the pair now before they lose them for nothing. Even for a club the size of Arsenal they couldn’t afford to allow players with such high values to leave on free transfers.
Improvement
French international midfielder Samir Nasri has just enjoyed his best season in an Arsenal shirt. He enjoyed a fantastic first half to the season but his form dipped in the latter half of the campaign.
Nasri is definitely a player capable of producing flashes of brilliance and scoring vital goals. However he isn’t yet consistent enough to be regarded as a truly world-class performer. If he is to be become a truly world-class performer he needs to up his level of consistency.
Inconsistent
Full-back Gael Clichy is also a player who has enjoyed an inconsistent time of late. When he broke into the Arsenal first team he was regarded as a player with the potential to become world-class.
Like a lot of his peers at Arsenal he hasn’t quite lived up to his potential. At 25 years old Clichy still has time to become a better player but its felt that he will never reached the heights expected of him on his arrival in the Arsenal first team.
Maybe a move to Manchester City will help Clichy develop into a better player. Maybe it will also reignite his hunger for the game and reignite his development.
Signings
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will have a big task on his hand rebuilding his squad if he loses Clichy, Fabregas and Nasri. All three players are first choice players for the Gunners. Fabregas and Nasri are Arsenal’s most influential midfielders.
Arsenal haven’t yet dipped into the transfer market this summer but they are believed to be in talks with Southampton over wonderkid Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The youngster is just 17 years old but Arsene Wenger is believed to be ready to splash out £10million to secure his signature.
Another player Arsenal are believed to be interested in is Ivory Coast international Gervinho. The Lille attacker has claimed that he is on the verge of a move to North London. The 24 year-old is highly-rated and a number of big clubs are believe to be chasing the striker.
Unproven
Both players would be decent signings but the pair are unproven at Premier League level. Oxlade-Chamberlain has only played a handful of games in England’s third tier. Although Gervinho is an Ivory Coast international he has spent most of his professional career in France’s Ligue 1.
Unfortunately these two players are a key example of Arsene Wenger’s signings in recent years. They are players with no experience of the Premier League and yet full of potential. I believe that Wenger’s transfer policy is the key to Arsenal not winning a trophy in six years.
He needs to be put his stubbornness aside and sign some proven Premier League players. That may mean the club spending big this summer but with players leaving for big fees the Gunners should have a major transfer kitty this summer.
Weak
Money doesn’t buy you success but neither does selling your best players. Selling the likes of Nasri and Fabregas will send out a message that the Gunners are weak and their rivals will take advantage.
If Arsenal are to be successful again they need to keep their best players and start signing established Premier League players. If not then Arsenal’s trophy draught could stretch to a seventh year.
Is Arsene Wenger right to sell Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri?
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