Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 8y

Samir Nasri excited about Manchester City future under Pep Guardiola

Samir Nasri says he is excited by Manchester City's future and wants to finish his career at the club. The French midfielder hasn't played since mid-October after having surgery on a tendon injury.

But the 28-year-old is hoping to be back before the end of the season and is looking to stay with the club for years to come.

"This club is doing everything to be the most dominant in the world. We have an ambitious owner who tries to improve the team and facilities every single year," he told the club's website.

"I have a great relationship with the chairman [Khaldoon Al Mubarak]. It's not just City, with all the clubs around the world it's like one big family. There are so many exciting things happening here.

"You never know what will happen in football but it would be a pleasure to finish my career at City."

Nasri hopes to return to full training in the next few weeks but will have missed more than five months of the season if his scheduled return goes according to plan.

In that time he has been dropped from City's Champions League squad -- with boss Manuel Pellegrini bringing in striker Kelechi Iheanacho at Nasri's expense.

The former Arsenal player, who has won two Premier League titles with City, says he has tried to not get too down by his long lay-off.

He said: "I believe in God and that everything happens for a reason and for me, a lot of things happened at the same time. So I was like, 'OK, cool. I'm not going to be depressed about it -- I've got an injury but these things happen so I'm going to work as hard as possible and come back as soon as I can and be there for my teammates.' That's how I approached this.

"For the first seven weeks I saw some of the lads as I recovered but I needed to rest and spent a lot of time with my family and friends and the people close to me but since I've been back at the club everything has been great.

"The only downside is, sometimes I get a little frustrated because I will hear people talking about the game we've just played and stuff like that and it's kind of hard, but that's the only thing that is really tough."

Nasri is now itching to get back in the team to play alongside old team-mates David Silva and Yaya Toure as well as new boys Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, who arrived in the summer.

"It's something I'm looking forward to. I have a special connection with David and Yaya in midfield because we've played together for so many years and we are technical players," he added.

"Kevin and Raheem have brought even more quality to the team and I'm looking forward to playing alongside them. I know Raheem a little bit more than Kevin because he arrived a bit earlier and Raheem has been saying I need to get back so I can play tiki-taka with him."

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