Samir Nasri has made no secret of his desire to work under Pep Guardiola, but the Manchester City ace is being put through his paces in pre-season.
As noted by The Mirror, the Spanish tactician has introduced what has been dubbed a ‘fat camp’ for players who are struggling with their weight and fitness this summer.
Given his preferred style of play, which includes a relentless work ethic to win possession back quickly, Guardiola will undoubtedly want his entire squad in great condition for the new campaign in order to effectively carry out his ideas.
It hasn’t all gone to plan for Nasri though, with the Frenchman left out of the club’s two pre-season friendlies so far, and now The Sun report that he’s been sent to ‘fat camp’ to shed excess weight.
“He arrived a little bit overweight. He’s much better now but he is still a little bit overweight,” the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach is quoted as saying by the tabloid.
“Last season he was overweight and he was injured all season, so we want to avoid that.
“The players that are on the pitch they are fit, their weight is in the right place to arrive at many minutes like Tosin today or like Fernandinho or like Kolarov and all the other ones. But hopefully in the next two weeks he will be right with us.”
From Nasri’s perspective, it’s clearly positive that Guardiola has plans to use him this season, with the Spaniard also expected to continue to bolster his squad in the coming weeks.
City have already brought in Nolito and Ilkay Gundogan as well as others, but that isn’t likely to be the end of the recruitment strategy with their new coach still looking to stamp his mark on the group further.
However, the warning is in place as if the players want to feature for the 45-year-old, they’ll have to be at the peak of the powers both in terms of fitness and quality on and off the ball.