Arsenal has agreed to sell French midfielder Samir Nasri to its Premier League rival Manchester City, the London club said Tuesday. Nasri has been omitted from the Arsenal squad traveling to Italy for Wednesday's Champions league playoff second leg against Udinese. “Arsenal can confirm that it has agreed terms for Samir Nasri to move to Manchester City,” Arsenal said in a statement on its website, adding that Nasri was on his way to Manchester for a medical Tuesday afternoon. Nasri is set to become the second key Arsenal player to leave the club this month after Barcelona signed captain Cesc Fabregas for a reported fee of around 40 million euros ($56.9 million). City had already laid out around 50 million pounds in this month's transfer window on Argentina forward Sergio Aguero, French left-back Gael Clichy — also bought from Arsenal — and Montenegro defender Stefan Savic. Since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008, City has spent an unprecedented amount for British football on buying top players. In 2009, it bought Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry and Emmanuel Adebayor. During the August 2010 transfer window its outlay was around 130 million on players such as Yaya Toure, David Silva and Mario Balotelli. Under Roberto Mancini, who took over as manager in late 2009, City finished third in the Premier League last season, one place above Arsenal. City also won the FA Cup, its first major trophy in 35 years. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is under increasing pressure from fans to buy a big-name player to replace Fabregas and Nasri, and to end the club's six-year trophy drought. Arsenal leads Udinese 1-0 after the first leg of its Champions League playoff. City qualified directly for the group stages of the competition. Lahm slams Klinsmann Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm has slammed USA coach and former Germany boss Jurgen Klinsmann for his style of management and lack of tactics during his brief tenure in charge of the Bavarian giant. Klinsmann, who took over as the US coach on July 29, was sacked as Bayern trainer in April 2009 after several poor results and with Munich bosses concerned about their team failing to qualify for the Champions League. “After six or eight weeks, all the players already knew that it wasn't going to work with Klinsmann,” said the 27-year-old Lahm in his new book, “The Subtle Difference”. “The rest of the season was just about damage control.” Lahm says under Klinsmann there was too much emphasis on fitness at Bayern, while tactics were neglected.
