Samir Nasri has taken up the manager’s mantra – the first step in becoming a big club is to think like a big club!
Nobody – apart perhaps from Zaba – knows Manuel Pellegrini’s ways better than the 31 year old midfielder after serving under him at City.
And apart from possessing the attributes the boss values the most highly – technical and creative ability – he has the same mentality which is slowly beginning to show itself at the London Stadium.
He’s also a winner and refuses to believe that we are inferior in any way to any club in the Premier League and as a result that should determine the way we play – on the front foot.
His attitude will of course be a big influence around the dressing room as perhaps some player begin to learn that Manuel’s ‘big club’ words are far more than words …they sould start becoming par for the course as a professional footballer.
Speaking to www.whufc.com Nasri said: “It’s a mentality – if you want to be a big club, you need to think like a big club. The manager says it all the time and it’s true.
“For instance, I think that we don’t have to be inferior or think if we lose one-nil to Manchester City that it’s a good result. To be a big club and to achieve things, we need to play Manchester City the same way we play Newcastle.
“Only by playing and thinking like that will we get results. Look at Ajax in the week. Ajax went to Real Madrid, didn’t say ‘they are triple winners of the Champions League, they just went there, played football and they beat them.
“With the quality that we have, we shouldn’t be looking at other clubs and thinking ‘if we only lose one-nil it’s a good result’. We should go anywhere and try to play our football.
“At the end of the day, if we succeed, we succeed. If not, at least we won’t have any regrets. I think we can do great things if we play football against big teams.”
“If you look, it’s just something mental with the team. It’s psychological because when we played with Liverpool at home, we deserved to win by far.
When we played Arsenal, we beat them, and before I was in the club we beat Manchester United and drew with Chelsea, so if we can do it at home, we can do it away as well.
“It’s a way of playing. It’s that simple. And we have to be this type of team that goes anywhere and plays their football.
“We also need to make sure we don’t lose points against the teams around us like Watford and Wolves, because it would be great for a club like West Ham with 60,000 fans to be playing European football.”