ANTALYASPOR SIGN NASRI

FORMER French international midfielder Samir Nasri yesterday signed a two year deal to join Turkish top flight side Antalyaspor from Manchester City, the club said. Nasri, who spent last season on loan at Sevilla, appeared unlikely to figure in Pep Guardiola’s plans this season with Manchester City keen to offload him and rejuvenate their ownline up. “After talks with Samir Nasri and the club, a two year deal has been signed,” Antalyaspor said in a brief statement headlined “Welcome Samir Nasri” without disclosing financial details. Manchester City confirmed the departure of the player, writing on Twitter that his six year stay at the club had come to an end, adding: “thank you for some brilliant memories, Samir Nasri!” Nasri had arrived in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city on Sunday where he was mobbed by fans before leaving the airport and had to be escorted out by Turkish security forces. Nasri, 30, will earn an annual salary of €4 million (RM20.16m) plus bonuses at the club, Turkish news reports have said. Antalyaspor’s key player over the past couple seasons has been former Cameroon international striker Samuel Eto’o, who remains at the club despite persistent rumours he is unsettled. This summer the team also signed France international Jeremy Menez.

I Tis now just over four months until Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta can begin to discuss Bosman transfers for the summer of 2018.

That, in one sentence, highlights Barcelona’s incompetence in tying down their best players, the two players who could fairly be described as the heart and soul of this team, to new deals.

Messi will sign, Barca say. They crowed loudly when they came to an agreement over an extension in early July and the plan was that when the Argentina international returned to Catalunya from his homeland in mid-July he would sign that contract until 2021.

But that important final act is yet to take place and there are more than a few nerves beginning to jangle behind the scenes. In a turbulent summer at the Nou Camp, where the directors remain under serious pressure and new boss Ernesto Valverde is in charge of a curiously-assembled squad, all the leverage remains with Camp Messi.

He asked to join Manchester City last summer and they remain interested – which even if it never happens, gives him negotiating power.

Renewed links have more substance to them than the idle mischief-making that they are being dismissed as. If Messi is silent for now, Iniesta this week chose to speak out.

In an interview with El País he broached the subject of his own contractual situation very carefully but hinted that he wasn’t pleased with how things had gone. For an que un