“I can confirm that Zenit did get an official offer from Arsenal about Andrei Arshavin. It was rejected as insufficient. They offered about £10m. No new offers have arrived from them since. At the moment, Arsenal are the only club to have approached us about the player.”
It remains to be seen whether or not this was the first bid of a lengthy negotiating process, or the culmination of talks that had taken place beforehand. Opinion among the press is split, with some sources suggesting we will return with a £12m offer, and The Mirror convinced we will be gazumped by an £18m bid from cash-flushed Manchester City. It’s hard to know what I believe, but I would say the following things:
I find it hard to believe that bid was rejected after Friday afternoon’s press conference, and at that stage Arsene did little to suggest his interest in the player had ended;
The paper who claim Arshavin is headed for Manchester are the very same publication who earlier this week ran an “Exclusive” saying that he was “on the verge” of a £10m move to Arsenal.
If City have come in, then Zenit will be delighted. Their sole reason for making our move for Arshavin public was to drum up interest from other clubs, and now that Tottenham seem to have ended their interest in the player, City are the obvious candidates: they have a need for quality players, and what’s more, they have the money to make Zenit (and probably Arshavin) drool.
Whether or not City are interested, it’s important we push this one as far as we possibly can, even if they have a bid accepted. Should the player makes his preference to join Arsenal clear then that could still swing the deal in our favour. But having had a £10m bid rejected, it’s clear we’re going to have to rummage down the back of the sofa and see if we can go that little bit higher – be it £12m, or maybe even £15m.
£10m for Andrei Arshavin is not a realistic price. This is the player who was voted the sixth best in Europe just a few weeks ago. The players above him were Ronaldo, Messi, Torres, Casillas, and Xavi. Immediately beneath him were David Villa, Kaka, Ibrahimovic, and Steven Gerrard. He is in the company of players who are worth £30m and upwards. I sincerely doubt that even Arsene believes that kind of player is worth as little as £10m – hell, we got £12m for Aleksandr Hleb…
Hopefully the bid is just an opening gambit, and we are realistic enough to know we’ll have to go higher to get our man. Arsene has said:
“What I want, if we do add somebody, is really special class.”
However, you cannot expect to get really special class at a really special discount. Sometimes, when a player fits the bill, you have to be prepared to go that extra mile, or pay that extra million pounds. We all know how much our refusal to pay the £2m difference between Liverpool’s asking price and our offer for Xabi Alonso has cost us – not financially perhaps, but certainly in terms of points.
There was a time, a few weeks back, when I was so convinced of the weakness of our squad that just about any arrival would be greeted with open arms. The likes of Jimmy Bullard and Mark Noble seemed attractive alternatives to Song or Diaby. But now it has become clear our spending is going to be limited, and wholesale changes are not just likely but impossible, I actually concurr with Arsene, and the quality of the player(s) that we bring in is all-important.
There aren’t many footballers who have the quality not just to walk straight into our team, but also to improve it – Arshavin is one of those. The arguments against his signing are not convincing:
the Russian league is extremely physical with very cold conditions, so he ought to be better suited to the Premier League than many of the mediterranean players we sign;
he may be 27, but the Russian mentality is so different to the Western one. One only need look at the (admittedly somewhat) extreme threats aimed at Arshavin over his desire to ‘Go West’ (as it were) to understand that the inward-looking effects of Communist rule still linger.
How many players do we have whose inspirational style has guided a team to UEFA Cup victory? How many players do we have that have been lauded as one of the stars of a high-profile International tournament? How many players do we have with a degree of the skill, invention, and direct running Arshavin displays in the video below?
Answer: not enough to justify pinching pennies over the price of a player who would improve us immediately. Not when he’s ‘all grown-up’ – now. It’s not often a player in that class becomes available; for one to be available in January is almost unheard of. The match against Bolton made it clear how much we require a player to combat our lack of creativity. We need to compensate for the combined missing attributes of Cesc Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky, and Theo Walcott – that’s not something any old player could even contemplate doing.  Arshavin is a unique opportunity and one I’m convinced that, much like in the case of Alonso, we would regret missing.
The potential competition from City is nothing new to us. In one Summer we infamously lost out on Shawn Wright-Phillips, Julio Baptista, and Robinho as the vultures of Chelsea and Real Madrid swooped on Arsene’s targets. When we missed out on those players, we didn’t settle for the second best available, because second best is not enough for Arsenal. Arsene recognises that much – now he simply needs to recognise that he has to push the boat out that little further to secure players of the requisite quality.
This one could run longer than Mathieu Flamini powered by a duracell battery.*
*though, obviously, it won’t run beyond 5pm on January 2nd.
Arsenal 1 – 0 Bolton Wanderers (Bendtner 84) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
Nicklas Bendtner is the Emirates crowd’s current scapegoat of choice. After Emmanuel Eboue was declared ‘Out of Bounds’ for the boo boys, an unspoken decision was made to train all sights on the Danish striker. Yesterday he replaced Eboue in a more literal sense, coming on as a substitute with fifteen minutes remaining.
He played from the right wing in a 4-2-4 formation, and after coming close with a header as his first touch, he twice gave the ball away after dribbling into the centre of a congested pitch. After that, a fair number of fans began to ironically cheer every remotely successful touch Bendtner had – pathetic behaviour from a section of the home crowd I’m beginning to feel increasingly alienated from.
Still, Bendtner himself delivered the perfect rebuke, launching himself at a Robin van Persie cross to end 84 minutes of frustration. Naturally we handed Kevin Davies a chance to equalise, but Almunia saved and we managed to hold on for the victory.
Bolton had defended well enough, and with so many creative players out through injury we struggled to break them down. Our best spell came in the second half, when Samir Nasri swapped with the sloppy Abou Diaby and played from a deep, central position. Vela and Bendtner then joined Adebayor and Van Persie in an attacking foursome that proved, eventually, to be just too much for a depleted Bolton side to contain.
That said, I can only really cite two other scoring opportunities in the game. One came shortly after Nasri was moved inside, when the Frenchman picked out a brilliant pass for Adebayor. The African, much like when he rounded David James against Portsmouth, dallied, and Bolton were able to block.
The other chance fell to Adebayor’s strike partner, Robin van Persie, who managed to squeeze a shot away after an Ade flick. However, his right-footed strike bounced off the post and was cleared. The paucity of chances created advertised just how badly we need a player of Andrei Arshavin’s invention and skill. The latest news of the Russian is that Zenit have rejected a £10m bid – there’ll be more on his potential transfer here tomorrow.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of enjoying the stadium’s Club Level facilities for the first time, and I have to say it was quite the experience. The manner in which I tore into the buffet was particularly shameless, and I oughtn’t be surprised that today eating anything, and indeed moving anywhere at all are proving equally problematic.
My seat was right next to the director’s box, and whilst the rest off the board filed back to the dining room after the game, it was good to see neww CEO Ivan Gazidis stay and clap each player off the pitch. Fabio Capello was also present, though who he was supposed to be watching is beyond me (*cough* WILSHERE *cough*).
Sat just ahead of me was a certain David Dein. Seeing him sat amongst the relative plebs, just feet from the director’s box that was once his stomping ground, I began to understand (if not appreciate) his motivation to force his way back into a position of power at the club. That said, he looked downcast and quiet throughout the game. The humiliation of his sacking from Arsenal has forced him to address his previously effervescent public persona.
Finally, a word for Kolo Toure. Linked with a move away from the club, he was captain yesterday as we kept a second consecutive Premier League clean-sheet. Walking off the pitch, he saluted the fans and repeatedly clutched and kissed the badge.
Players do come and go, but it is not Kolo’s time yet.
Kolo Toure will start today’s game with Bolton Wanderers as captain, just days after handing in a transfer request. It represents a remarkable turnaround for a player who looked set for a move to Manchester City after making public his row with William Gallas. Now Gallas (and Silvestre) are sidelined for three weeks or so, Kolo is suddenly indispensable again.
I doubt Arsene has ever been so glad to lose a player to injury as he is to see Gallas out for the period of the transfer window. Le Boss would be loathe to lose Toure, and Gallas’ injury allows him to restore the Ivorian to the line-up and settle him down during this brief transfer window. The situation can then be reassessed at the end of the season, when many expect Gallas to leave.
Denilson and Gael Clichy are also fit again, whilst Manuel Almunia will return after Lukasz Fabianski got a run-out in the cup game against Plymouth.
Bolton have proved famously tricky opposition for us in the past few seasons, but one would still expect (or at least hope) for an Arsenal victory today. I do genuinely despise Bolton, so any kind of victory would be enjoyable, but I’d ideally like one that left their players, fans, and manager writhin in agony. Just sayin’, like.
Just found out that Jay Simpson is starting the midlands derby for West Brom against Villa, who would go six points clear of us with a win. Hopefully Jay will do us a favour.
This morning Arsenal.com have released an interview with Arsene Wenger in which he talks about the Andrei Arshavin transfer rumours. Read on:
There are stories in the papers about Arshavin. What’s the state of play there?
It’s the same as with the team: don’t talk too much and deliver on the pitch… and that’s what we try to do: not to talk too much about who we want to buy and who will come in, but try to deliver, and at the moment I cannot announce any good news… and in this job as well, no news is good news – it means nothing has fallen through aswell.
So it’s fair to say that you are talking about it?
We are on alert in the transfer market.
Because in a press conference last week you were asked specifically about Arteta, Given, and Arshavin, and you said “No” to Given, “No” to Arteta, but Arshavin you said “No news either way”, which is a different answer…?
Exactly, exactly. I maintain what I said last week.
Ok. You said you might get one player in if it was a special talent – now Arshavin is that – but would you still be after someone in the defensive part of the midfield if you were to get him?
Well, I believe we have to go first for the priority and then to go for the second target, you know. At the moment I believe that we need more… with the players coming back and the players that have moved into the team since the start of the season in the defensive area, I don’t think we have a big need… we are at the moment short because we planned at the start of the season for a player like Rosicky to play in 80% of our games – he has not played at all and we feel we need somebody more in this area.
So there you have it. It’s clear to me that the interest is real, and furthermore I maintain my deep-rooted suspicion that if Arshavin arrives, he may well be our only signing of this window.
To hear me talk about Arshavin, Kolo Toure, Saturday’s game with Bolton, and the ‘Inter-est’ in Emmanuel Eboue, listen to today’s arsecast.
Arsenal’s transfer activity is notoriously hard to predict, but I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty: we will not be paying £20m for Andrei Arshavin. Newly-appointed CEO Ivan Gazidis will be under strict instruction to negotiate the best price possible, and it’s hard to imagine that being anything over what we paid for Samir Nasri – around £13m. And if the price, against all time-honoured Brucie-based tradition, isn’t right, then we will walk away. Our decision not to pay the extra £2m required to secure Xabi Alonso is evidence of the scale of Arsene’s stubbornness.
As I suggested a few days back, I find it hard to see anyone else coming in without players being sold first. Kolo Toure was alleged to have cleared out his locker earlier this week, but if that’s the case he must be feeling like a right mug now, wondering around London having to carry all his kit without anywhere to go.
His fellow Ivorian Emmanuel Eboue, about whose departure few tears would be shed, claims Inter Milan want to sign him. I can only imagine that Jose Mourinho thinks the presence of a jester would be good for morale.
One player who won’t be going anywhere is Carlos Vela, who has been officially informed that he is not available for loan. It’s nice to see that despite playing not nearly so often as Nicklas Bendtner, Vela hasn’t come out with any “Play me or I’ll leave” ultimatums. He is developing nicely and is obviously going to be a big player in the not-too-distant future.
Arsene’s press conference tomorrow will doubtless include full and frank denials of any story that threatens to be remotely interesting. I can’t wait.
