Samir Nasri has claimed that Pep Guardiola will be lucky to have him at Manchester City next season because he has rediscovered his hunger for football.
The Frenchman scored the winner on his first Premier League appearances in six months as the Citizens edged past West Bromwich Albion 2-1 on Saturday evening.
He had been sidelined by a thigh injury since October, according to The Guardian, and had fallen back in Manuel Pellegrini’s pecking order prior to his long layoff.
But Nasri has admitted that he feels rejuvenated upon returning to action, and is very confident that he can be an asset to Guardiola when the Spaniard takes over.
“I don’t know because you never know,” Nasri is quoted as saying by The Guardian. “Maybe he comes with his [own] ideas and stuff. I played against him in the past, he had some praise for me but I think that was like five years ago now [when at Arsenal]. That is one thing.
“When the pre-season is going to start I am going to be fresh so I hope that will help me and I will try to perform because when you have been out for so long you are more hungry when you come back. You don’t want to waste your time. You want to be back with a bang. If I stay working with Pep Guardiola, if he wants me, he’s just going to be a lucky man because I will be really hungry.
“I am the type of player for his philosophy and the way he likes his team to play so we are just going to see and on the first day of pre-season I will have a chat with him because I am going to be really hungry.”
The Sunday Times claimed last month that former Arsenal winger Nasri could be one of six first-team players to get the chop when Guardiola replaces Pellegrini in the summer.
But the 28-year-old has the technical prowess and guile to play for a Guardiola team, so the incoming manager may think that Nasri can have a future at the Etihad Stadium.
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