Patrice Evra, the French left back from Manchester United, has added more fuel to the fire that is the speculation surrounding the future of Arsenal’s Samir Nasri. Evra said in an interview to The Sun that he had urged Nasri to move to Manchester United if he were to make a choice.
Nasri has been linked with both the Manchester clubs, United and City. He just has one year left in his contract with Arsenal and has refused to meet Arsenal’s offer of a new contract. He has cited Arsenal’s lack of silverware the reason for his desire to move to another club.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, had distanced himself from the speculation last week. He said that he expected Nasri to move from Arsenal, not to Manchester United but to a different club. United are also linked with move for Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder. But Evra’s comments will open a fresh set of rumors about United’s link with Nasri.
Those comments from Ferguson had made the tabloids guess that the favorites for the deal were going to be City. However, no formal negotiations have happened between Arsenal and City to discuss a transfer.
Evra said that he had even offered to help Nasri settle in Manchester and that the pair had discussed about it a lot over the summer when France played a couple of international friendly games. Evra also said that he had jokingly told Nasri that he was a prince and he would become a King only if he came to United.
Evra has won 12 trophies with United in the five years he has been at the club and had shown this as the proof for what awaits Nasri if he were to come to United.
Evra also spoke about how happy he was at United but also accepted that he had requested a transfer last summer, when his contract negotiations were going on. He had come back from the World Cup and had a couple of big offers, and also wanted to move his family to a familiar location. However, he signed a new contract in the middle of last season.
The comments will not go down well with Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal fans. Evra is a hugely unpopular player among the Arsenal fans and is likely to be get a very bad reception when he plays Arsenal next.
Arsenal, on the other hand, are seemed to make Nasri play for the remaining of his contract.