Bacary Sagna: Man City offer the medals Arsenal could not

Alam Khan - Reporter 08:39 16/08/2014
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  • New chapter: Bacary Sagna is delighted to have joined Manchester City.

    In saying he is not a “tricky person”, Bacary Sagna sighs as he questions why Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger or fans would question the motives of his summer move to Manchester City.

    While accepting he may now become a target – a la Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri – for taunts following his free transfer depar­ture from the Emirates Stadium, the Frenchman is focusing on the fresh challenge that he needed des­perately.

    After seven years at Arsenal, win­ning only the FA Cup in his final game in May against Hull, Sagna said there was no “tapping up” from Premier League champions City, as Wenger has suggested, and no amount of persuasion from his old boss or a title would have affected his decision to leave.

    “I had already made my mind up, at the beginning of the season,” he says. “I knew we had to have a really great season. I wish we had won the league, but we didn’t. At least we won the FA Cup.

    “I wanted to change, I wanted to boost my career, I’m 31 now and it was time to move. It was not an easy move, but for me it was a personal choice and the right time to do it.

    “I know exactly what happened, everyone knows. I am not a tricky person, I am very professional, so I don’t want to comment on it (what Wenger said). I don’t know why he said this.

    “All I will say is that I was at Arsenal for a number of years, I have always been straight, I have always given the maximum. Even when I came back from injury and was not fully fit, I always played.

    “It’s not about the money. I have been fair because I have respected my contract. I spent six years on the same contract and never went to the boss’s office to ask for more, but that’s life.”

    Having signed from Auxerre in 2007 and established himself as a key and popular player, he added: “It is not easy to read some com­ments on social networks.

    “I know it’s only a small minority and not all the Arsenal fans, but it’s still not easy to read it because I feel I gave everything.

    “Every time a player leaves they seem to get abuse. It won’t hurt me, I’m ready to expect anything now.

    “To me I made the right choice and I’m very happy to be here no matter what they think.

    “This was a personal choice but I am not the first one to leave their club and I won’t be the last one.

    “I’m looking at my personal life now and I want to fight, get in the team and give the maximum. I don’t look at the negatives.”

    Sagna is also relishing rivalling Pablo Zabaleta for the right-back role – a tough task given the Argen­tine’s iconic status at the Etihad Stadium – and getting Manuel Pel­legrini’s nod to start the opener at Newcastle tomorrow.

    The pair have history too after being sent off in a goalless draw at the Emirates back in 2011 when they clashed heads.

    That reflected a troubled time for Sagna, who was still trying to come to terms with the death of his older brother Omar from a seizure in 2008.

    He had claimed Zabaleta had insulted him in Spanish and felt “hatred” towards the tough City defender.

    But Sagna, speaking at the club’s Citylive season launch event, said: “I’ll say I was wrong. I understand Spanish and he said something I believed was towards me, but it was not obviously.

    “I lost someone in my family and was not in a good shape, or a good frame of mind. I lost my brother, I was in a difficult moment.

    “He (Zabaleta) said something and OK he didn’t mean to say it to me but I took it personally, I lost the plot. It’s one of the only times I have lost my cool. I didn’t talk to anyone [about the death] and kept every­thing inside, so when it happened I just went crazy.

    “I know he’s (Zabaleta) a nice guy and was the first one to come over to me at City training. He is always making jokes and smiling.

    “We have not talked about it since I came here but if I get the chance I will explain to him. It’s in the past, I made a mistake and I apologise.

    “I know the fans love him, but this is the right challenge for me because I felt a bit in a comfort zone at Arsenal. I just have to perform because he (Pellegrini) is going to choose the one who is in form, not the one who has just come or who has been with the team a long time. I think we’re just going to have to give the maximum, game by game.” 

    FACTFILE

    Born: Sens, France, on February 14, 1983
    Club career: Auxerre (2004- 07); Arsenal (2007-14); Manchester City (2014-current)
    International career: France 2007-current: (42 caps) 

    Achievements
    Auxerre – Coupe de France 2005, Intertoto Cup 2006
    Arsenal – FA Cup 2014
    Premier League Team of the Year
    2007-08 & 2010-11

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