It’s pretty clear that Manuel Pellegrini is very keen to play Samir Nasri very soon but not for too long.
The manager is a huge admirer of the midfielder’s craft and guile – attributes he tends to value more highly than most others.
And it wasn’t a big surprise when the Frenchman was named in the squad for last night’s game against Brighton and at one time it appeared he was likely to get on as he went through various warming up exercises.
Given the lack of quality on show it might have helped whilst on the other hand it could have set the guy back quite a bit during what was a thorough dispiriting first half.
I’m personally looking forward to seeing him because if he’s even 50-60 per cent as good as he was at his peak that makes him a pretty good player and I’m sure Pellegrini won’t allow past reputations to get ahead of current training ground performance.
And commenting in Football London he said: “Samir is working with us for one month and I think he is able to play 15 or 20 minutes without any problems
“My intention was to use him but in the way that the game was tonight it would have been a risk for him to come on but I absolutely think that he will be a decisive player for our team.”