The Hammers midfielder recently served an 18-month ban from football but he says he still feels like the player he was at Arsenal and Manchester City.
New West Ham United signing Samir Nasri has spoken out about his time away from football and how he thinks he will do at the London Stadium.
For years, the France international was a Premier League fixture, joining Arsenal in 2008 from Marseille and spending three years at the Emirates Stadium.
In 2011, he then joined Manchester City and spent six years on their books, though his loan spell at Sevilla in 2016-17 and subsequent stint at Antalyaspor kept him away from English football.
Nasri has since served an 18-month ban after receiving an intravenous treatment at a Los Angeles clinic in December 2016 in breach of World Anti-Doping Agency rules, but has been taken on by the Hammers, managed by his former Citizens boss Manuel Pellegrini.
The 31-year-old made his West Ham debut in the 2-0 win over Birmingham City in the FA Cup last weekend and now looks set to return to Premier League action against none other than the Gunners, the club where he made his English football bow.
Ahead of the game, Nasri was interviewed by Sky Sports News and, when asked how confident he is in terms of being the top-level player he used to be, his reply will surely please Hammers fans in terms of what they can expect from the midfielder.
“100 per cent,” said Nasri, who has won the Premier League title twice with Man City. “If you don’t believe in yourself, who’s going to do it for you? I’m a guy who is confident and football is like riding a bike… once you know how to do it you will always do it.
“The only thing is to get my fitness back and that’s it, but my mindset is I want to prove something to myself. Prove that I’m back and I only lost one year of my career.”
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