Samir Nasri’s current club, Anderlecht, regrets signing the ex-Man City and West Ham playmaker
Anderlecht would not have signed Samir Nasri had they known how his time at the club would pan out, according to their sporting director.
Nasri joined the Belgian giants in the summer but his torrid time at the club has epitomised what has been a disastrous season thus far.
Anderlecht’s dreadful campaign: Five things to know…
- Anderlecht appointed Vincent Kompany as player-manager in the summer…
- …after finishing 13th in the 2018/19 season.
- However, Kompany relinquished his managerial duties after just four games, which yielded just four points.
- They now sit ninth, four points off European contention.
- A host of their summer signings have spent long periods out of action.
Years of dominance in Belgium have been somewhat halted for Anderlecht, as they failed to qualify for Europe at the end of last season – the first time they’ve done so in 56 years.
This failure was tackled head-on by the board, who brought in Nasri and Kompany alongside a host of other big names, including Nacer Chadli and Kemar Roofe.
However, these signings have not worked out how they were supposed to. Chadli has sustained a serious calf injury whilst Nasri hasn’t played since the beginning of October after tearing his hamstring as well as his abductor muscle. Roofe has also struggled with fitness issues.
Michael Verschueren, Anderlecht’s sporting director, clearly feels a little aggrieved at how this season has panned out. He told Proximus: “If I had to do it again, would we have signed Samir Nasri? With what we know now, no.
“We’re very worried about Nacer Chadli’s calf injury. If we had known about it, we might have acted differently. We’ve been unlucky. We wanted him to play more. You can get injured once, but for a second time, it’s not positive.
“Roofe? We looked at his medical history and he never had big problems. We’ve been unlucky.”
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The fall of Samir Nasri
When Nasri left Arsenal for Manchester City, he seemingly had the world at his feet. He had been one of the standout players in the 2010-11 season for the Gunners and City splashed around £25 million for the playmaker.
Despite heavy involvement in his first few seasons, his career has been going downhill ever since. A brief loan to Sevilla in 2016 appeared to go some way to rejuvenating his career but a needless red card away at Leicester in the Champions League turned the fanbase against him.
He returned to the Premier League with West Ham last season, managing just five appearances before moving to Belgium, where his troubles have continued.
It’s surprising to think that Nasri is just 32-years-old: the same as Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema and Dimitri Payet. Unfortunately, it seems like his career at the top level is coming to a premature end.
