Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong has accused Samir Nasri of being a bully and declared he'll never respect the Frenchman as a player.
While now retired at the age of just 27, Frimpong worked his way through the Gunners youth ranks before making his Premier League debut for the club in 2011.
It was there that he'd rub shoulders with Nasri and the two players very quickly came to dislike one another.
When Frimpong was sent off in just his second league game against Liverpool, Nasri ruthlessly singled him out as the reason they lost the match.
"After the game, everybody came into the changing room and Arsene [Wenger] was quiet, you know. He didn’t talk, and then Nasri basically stood up in front of everybody and said we lost the game because of me," Frimpong told The Athletic.
"Ok, I can understand that, but I was thinking, ‘Why would somebody - especially me playing, I think that was like my second game - why would any professional do that to a young player in that kind of moment?’”
When Nasri later moved to Manchester City, Frimpong breathed a sigh of relief and even took to Twitter to question Jack Wilshere's good luck message.
Not long after the social media swipe, Alex Song would hand Frimpong his phone while at Arsenal's training ground, with an angry Nasri awaiting him on the other end.
"I took the phone and then it was Nasri on the phone threatening me," Frimpong said.
"I told him, ‘I’m not one of the players that’s afraid of you. If you want us to sort it out as men, we can sort it out as men.’
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“To be honest, at that time when he left Arsenal, I could tell him what I actually thought about him because he was there so I could basically let him know my feelings. So I just told him that I don’t like him, I don’t respect him and I will never respect him as a professional player.
"You can ask Aaron Ramsey, you can ask Jack Wilshere. I never disrespected anybody. But for me, the truth is I’ve never liked Nasri and I will never, ever like this guy.
"Even if he gives me five billion dollars, I will still not like him."
Frimpong and Nasri would have one final run in when Arsenal and City squared off in early 2012 with the Frenchman cementing his bad reputation to his former team-mate.
“During the game, he told me he could buy me," Frimpong said.
"That’s how stupid this guy is. He probably could then because he had millions, but that’s no respect.
“That’s what happened. I feel like he was a bully, I feel like he didn’t know his responsibilities as a senior player to be able to help younger players."
After failing to cement his place at Arsenal, Frimpong would go on to play in Russia, Sweden and Cyprus before hanging up the boots in March 2019 due to ongoing injury issues.
