I think he'd be pretty difficult to replace personally. He's a superb footballer.

The thing I mind about letting him go now is that its way below the valuation. He will go down for maybe only 15m. If he signs a new contract with his talent he will be selling for 30-40m in future. But its also terrible to be held ransom to his demands.

If we can sign Hazard or Sanchez then we can let him go. Those 2 are the minimum. To think we wanted to bring them to complement Nasri instead. Step down for sure

Tim wrote:

I think he'd be pretty difficult to replace personally. He's a superb footballer.

if we want to continue playing the way we did when "the super six" were on fire we need to keep him.

However, I think Hazard or Marin or someone similar can do his job. Maybe even Alvarez

If we have to sign someone like Hazard or Sanchez, two of the most coveted wide men in the world, to replace him, then by definition he's not easily replaceable.

kamikaze wrote:

lets not exaggerate. cole was the worlds best LB at the time. i don't doubt nasri's talent, but in terms of actual performance, he's had 1 great half-season for us. the entire rest of his arsenal career has been pretty meh. we could replace him at or below zero net cost with someone like gotze, kagawa or whoever (alvarez?), and hardly suffer in actual on-the-pitch performance.

All the same, it'll be a kick in the nuts. Situations have changed since 2006, when we lost Cole it didn't hurt how fans, managers and other players recognised Arsenal. Indeed, most people now think Cole is a greedy cunt and Chelsea are cheating scum. We came out of that saga as the ones who were in the right. Losing Nasri now would drive home some painful truths in the most public way possibly. But I'm not trying to compare the two.

Not sure you're serious about Gotze, Alvarez replacing Nasri and not seeing a drop in performance. Maybe Young and Hazard could come in at that level Nasri was in 2009 but they'll cost a tidy sum and we've got some seriously re constructive surgery to do without that.

kamikaze wrote:

i don't doubt nasri's talent, but in terms of actual performance, he's had 1 great half-season for us. the entire rest of his arsenal career has been pretty meh. we could replace him at or below zero net cost with someone like gotze, kagawa or whoever (alvarez?), and hardly suffer in actual on-the-pitch performance.

You're underrating him.

Even if he wasn't scoring, he played a very important part in our attacking game.

What comes to replacing him, the players you mentioned are all central players(and inferior to Nasri at the moment). It's far from guaranteed that they will perform on the flanks. And then there's also the question of how they adjust to the league. In Nasri's case, it took him two years to start dominating. We can't wait any longer.

It's crazy to suggest a Kagawa, Gotze, or 'whoever' could come strolling in and match Nasri's contributions. You can't measure everything in statistics. Nasri is a very, very good player, and for about 3 months was about as good as they come anywhere.

After all this I bet he signs a new deal within 10 days. The club will cave and give him what he wants, just like we did with Ade.

I hope you're right.

My optimism took a serious hit with the latest quotes. I reckon it's more than just about 20k wages.

As I said above, I think it's the principle - he probably thinks he the best player at the club, or at least right up there, and wants to be paid as such.

20k a week is a million £'s a year.

It's got to the stage where it just feels like blackmail to me now, and, if his heart's not really in it, I'm happy for him to go.

That said, if Sanchez is going to Barca for €22m + Jeffren, that will set the benchmark for wingers this summer, and Hazard will undoubtedly go for a LOT more than Wenger would ever pay for a player, so it's hard to know where to look. I'm not going to put any stock in Ricky Alvarez doing a job there, but looking around Europe it's hard to come up with names who I think might be suitable replacements at a 'Wenger' price. Young's the only name I can come up with from the Premiership, though we don't seem to have any interest in him, and I think he's a step down for Nasri anyway. Kagawa and Gotze look the business in Germany, though they're young and inexperienced, and would take a while to settle - we'd probably get half a good season from both, which is exactly what we got from Nasri last year, but that's probably an area we ought to look to improve on. So where next? Mata? Probably too expensive, and though I like him as a player he'd be a bit of a gamble. Navas? Reyes mk II. Honda? Again, like him as a player from what I saw at the World Cup, but is he really going to produce that form over a 45 game season?

I don't particularly like what Nasri is reported to have said. But I do think he's waiting to see what happens with Cesc.

I also think that unless he is asking for absolutely ridiculous money, it's clearly going to be more expensive to replace him than it would be to give him a pay rise. If Cesc if off, and I believe he is, then that's a lot of money into the bank and off the wage bill..

If Wenger's got to replace Nasri and Cesc, as well as everything else he's got to do this summer, I honestly fear for him having enough time to get it all done.

It's not in his nature to move quickly and decisively for players that cost a normal transfer fee.

Lagos wrote:

I reckon Nasri will go and Cesc will stay!

I have a suspicion that you might be right.

I think Arsenal fans(and perhaps fans in general) think it's much easier to replace quality players than it actually is.

Many Arsenal fans thought for years that Clichy was a great Cashley replacement. But in retrospect, the Cole-Gallas deal was terrible for us. And on top of that Clichy isn't even good enough for the standards Arsenal aspire to, let alone getting anywhere close to Cole.

Many Arsenal fans also thought Nasri would be a great immediate replacement for Hleb. But ultimately it took 2 years for Nasri to really deliver. It took time for him to adapt to the league, a new team and a new position. He had to learn how to defend from a wide position, he had to learn to take initiative...etc. Regardless of people's opinion of Hleb he had a great parthership with Cesc and was missed in our midfield following his departure.

Nasri is applying the Wayne Rooney negotiating strategy. Threaten to go to a rival, and hope we throw lots of money in your face. Good luck to him. Wenger is not Ferguson. And Nasri is not Rooney