Serie A side Benevento intent on reuniting former Arsenal teammates – but is it a good idea?

Look at the players linked to Serie A club Benevento this week and their names read like an Arsenal starting line-up circa 2010/11. Having already signed Bacary Sagna and with a reported interest in Samir Nasri and Alex Song, the Stregoni are only a Marouane Chamakh away from travelling back in time into the heart of the Arsenal ‘banter years’.

It’s pretty risky as transfer strategies go, with the mid-to-late Wenger era footballer hardly known for his resilience in the face of adversity.

Benevento are currently bottom of the table with a paltry seven points from 23 games. They have won twice all season, against Chievo and Sampdoria, and currently have a goal difference of -38 with a league-lowest 13 goals scored. They say beggars can’t be choosers but, then again, former Arsenal players don’t generally join clubs out of charity.

Attempting to sign Nasri and Song as well as Sagna makes a sort of sense, given their familiarity with each other. While their time at Arsenal together was hardly stellar – in the four seasons that their Arsenal careers overlapped they won zilch and finished no higher than third in the Premier League – they could certainly bring something to a struggling Benevento side in terms of individual talent. Part of a Francophone clique during their time at the Emirates, the fact that they would take little time to reacquaint themselves with each other could be a bonus for Benevento. The Stregoni need results and need them fast, so the prospect of introducing three signings who know each other and already have a rapport on the pitch must have some appeal.

A wise move?

That said, despite their talents, there are serious question marks over at least two of Benevento’s friends reunited. Bacary Sagna is still a fantastic defender at the age of 34 despite having lost much of his pace to age, while he remains a popular figure at both Arsenal and Manchester City for his conspicuous work ethic and blood, sweat and tears approach to the game. The same cannot be said for Samir Nasri, one of the most mercurial players to have graced the Premier League and a divisive character off the field. Nasri has been involved in his fair share of spats, fall-outs and controversies over the years, most recently the bizarre ‘Drip Doctors’ fiasco for which he is still under investigation for an alleged doping offence.

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Having just seen his two-year contract with Turkish club Antalyaspor cancelled after only five months – this after making eight appearances for the club and scoring a grand total of two goals – there is little sign of Nasri having a career revival in his early thirties. The same goes for that sullen shrug of a defensive midfielder, Alex Song, who has just ended a disappointing two-year spell with Rubin Kazan in the Russian Premier League.

Bacary Sagna is unveiled at Benevento

Gifted as they undoubtedly are, Nasri and Song seem like unlikely saviours for a club clinging onto Serie A by its fingernails. Far from gunning for a relegation dogfight, the former Gunners seem stuck in an aimless career drift. While Benevento may have ambitions of reviving the Arsenal side which once conceded three second-half goals to lose 3-2 to Tottenham at the Emirates – or by the same scoreline to West Bromwich Albion two months earlier – Nasri and Song are faded imitations of the players who once infuriated Arsenal fans with their capricious potential.

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That potential has long dissipated, having failed to materialise into anything of particular substance in the interim. As such, signing canny and committed veterans like Sagna will be far more beneficial to Benevento’s slim hopes of surviving in Serie A.