From Liam : letting Nasri leave for free
Myles,
Since you worked in the media for many years, can you explain why no reporter EVER pushes Wenger on issues like Nasri getting to this contract stage?
It seems an obvious question to ask :Why were Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri both allowed to reach this point in their contracts?
Why has he never had to directly answer this question?
Then he happily explains that he will let Nasri run down his contract and leave for free, which beggars belief!
Myles replies:
The Clichy and Nasri stories are very different, Liam.
He didn’t want to keep Clichy. He didn’t want to extend his contract. He let Clichy go and got good money for him.
During last season, Nasri decided to leave Arsenal, so his agent pretended to negotiate up to February.
If you look at what Nasri did on the field in March and April, he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t the same player. He didn’t want to be there. He has no close friends at Arsenal.
He decided to leave and treble his wages at Man City. He was offered £180,000 a week.
I reckon Wenger has a big back-story with Nasri’s agent. Three agents are working to get a move for Nasri.
Signing those shirts in Malaysia, Nasri’s face was as miserable as sin.
Many reporters are “beat” reporters. They just do one club. That is their “beat”.
If you’re on the plane to Kuala Lumpur with Arsenal, you don’t want Wenger to leave you behind when he flies to China.
They know far more than they can write. What football reporters say to each other is far more interesting than what they write in their papers. It’s self-censorship.
Today, because of very strict controls on accreditation by the Premier League, a lot of reporters are “embedded” and just report what the manager says.
There is an etiquette among football reporters that takes a while to learn.
When I freelanced for The Scotsman on English football for 20 years, I mostly wrote about London clubs and England and Cup Finals.
When I started I didn’t know the etiquette.
A couple of times in the early Eighties, when I asked an obvious question, Spurs manager Keith Burkinshaw replied by asking me what paper I worked for.
After one Burkinshaw session at White Hart Lane, a guy came over and asked to see my press pass.
I was surprised by his audacity.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Spurs press steward.”
I showed him the pass I’d collected on my way in.Then he went away.
Two weeks later I was at QPR and saw the same guy in their press room.
I naturally wondered why a Spurs press steward would be in the QPR press lounge, so I asked a pal.
“Who is that guy?”
“Peter Blackman of The Evening Standard.”
At a Charity Shield game I once found myself sitting next to a scouse fan who had blagged a press pass off his mate, who worked on The Liverpool Echo but was away on holiday.
After the game I took the lad downstairs and halfway round the stadium to the press conference, which he would never have found on his own.
The managers spoke in a medical room which had two stewards on the door.
Afterwards the lad came up to me. He as quite agitated. He was amazed by the tone of the exchanges between manager and reporters.
The press conference was nothing like what he had assumed it would be.
He said, “Why do you give them such an easy ride?”
I can’t remember what my reply was.
As I say : etiquette.