Samir Nasri’s time has been a long time arriving but it appears that the former Manchester City midfielder could become the creative spark for tomorrow’s FA Cup clash against Birmingham.
And as CandH predicted earlier today (Fri) it’s certain that Andy Carroll wioll be involved in a match which has an emotional pull for the club’s owners David Gold and David Sullivan.
And after there time involved at St Andrews Sullivan has made it clear that despite his former attachment to City he wants the game settled at the first attempt,
He told ClaretandHugh: “We will be welcoming our old friends from Birmingham and we hope to see a well fought out game of football which can see us into the fourth round. However, we want it settled in 90 minutes. ”
Withe the Irons resources stretched the last thing we need is a long and drawn out battle as Manuel Pellegrini looks for a decent win.
And the manager revealed: “Samir Nasri will be on the squad list tomorrow. We will see if he will start playing or if he will play some minutes but probably he will be involved in this game.
“He is looking very well because he has been working with us for around more than one month. He lost some kilos in his weight.
“I think football is like riding a bicycle. When you learn to ride a bicycle when you are a small boy, you never forget. I think Samir is a very technical player and he will play football in the same way that he played in the last game he was able to do it, so I trust a lot in what he will give to our team.
“I suppose he will be same player he was in his prime because he is motivated, he is working hard and he has a lot of quality, so I am absolutely sure he will be the player who make a difference.”
Pic via www.whufc.com
Speaking in his pre-match press conference he added: “Both things are important, to rest players who have played so many games in December but also it is important to continue in the FA Cup.
It is a way to get a spot in Europe, to win a championship so we are going to play this game as seriously as we can.
“But, of course there are some players who have played too many games so we will see which ones will be able to continue playing.
“We will see [who we will select]. We are just waiting for the others to recover, we have had less than 72 hours to do that from the last game so on Friday night when we have our meeting, we will see which other players are able to play.”
Alongside Nasri, another who can expect to be involved on Saturday is Andy Carroll, who has recovered from the cut he received to his eye against Brighton.
“Andy is OK, it was not an important injury,” Pellegrini confirmed. “He played 45 minutes against Brighton, 35 against Burnley and is getting more minutes so he will be very useful for us on Saturday.”
If Nasri can get back to the player he was he could make quite a difference to our midfield. Also any more minutes Carroll gets is a bonus. He has looked laboured so far but if he can get back to the player he was then it will be well worth keeping him and extending his contract. I think Pelle likes Carroll personally, believes he can get back to the player he was and will want to keep him. I would be very surprised if we sell Carroll in this window.
https://plpotm.easports.com/ if anyone wants to vote for Anderson as Decembers PL player of the month
He told ClaretandHugh: “We will be welcoming our old friends from Birmingham.
REALLY? I would have thought Sullivan & Gold would not be welcomed back at all considering the history.
Well No 1 they aren’t going back, number 2 he is merely being polite but even that draws snipes. There we are
Pedantic I would have thought Hugh.The news from Chile is that the Gary Medel deal is almost done.
What’s pedantic? That they are playing at the LS and not St A? 200 miles pedantic perhaps?
The news on Medel was covered on here this morning via our own people but thanks for passing on.