West Ham United have set a deadline for midfielder Samir Nasri to prove his fitness in order to win a contract with the club, according to the Mirror.
The newspaper claims that the Hammers’ move for the Frenchman was put in jeopardy after his medical showed he was overweight.
However, manager Manuel Pellegrini is keen to reunite with a player he worked with at Manchester City, and as such the club have given Nasri until New Years Day to improve his fitness.
The 31-year-old will reportedly be given the chance to earn an £80,000-per-week contract with Pellegrini’s side if he can get in shape by 2019.
OPINION
This seems like a sensible compromise by the club. It certainly appears that Pellegrini is the one driving this move, rather than West Ham. The Chilean is obviously eager to link up with Nasri again after he brought the best out of the midfielder at City. The playmaker has always been an extremely talented footballer, but he appears to have fallen off a cliff in recent years. His form for Sevilla and Antalayaspor was nothing to write home about, and since then he has been out for 18 months due to a drugs ban. It’s hard to know what he’s going to look like once he does return to first team football, but his lack of fitness in his medical isn’t an encouraging start. However, the Hammers boss really wants to sign the player so it’s worth giving Nasri this deadline, at least, to see if he can get himself into good enough shape to be a factor for West Ham in the second half of the season.
