I just had a bet on Arshavin to stay at Zenit
Add comment January 30th, 2009
The way I see it, that makes it win-win. If he doesn’t sign, my £10 will return as £45 and I will spend it on forgetting that the Russian ever existed. And if he does sign, it will be feel a bit like I bought him. For £10.
Arsene has been speaking about Arshavin in an interview with Arsenal.com which was recorded yesterday. How the situation has progressed since then I’m not sure, but it went a bit like this:
It’s being reported today that you said that the Arshavin deal was 90% done – is that right?
AW: No… it was 90% not done! 10% done, but then at this level the percentage has not a big meaning because the 10% can quickly become the 90%. Let’s see! Anyway, you won’t have a long time to wait now because we are at the 29th – that means very shortly it’s the transfer deadline.
You did say you’d expect to know more in the next couple of days, so is it make or break for this deal?
Yeah, of course.Â
Before the game at the weekend even?
Yes.
So you want it done by the time you kick off against West Ham?
If it can be done, of course we want to do it as quickly as possible.
Arsene went on to say that he had made enquiries about other players, but no serious bids.
Well, like I say, that interview took place about 24 hours ago, and one can only imagine Arsenal are confident of progress after the news broke that we have successfully applied for a work permit for the player. I don’t think that’s any guarantee of a deal being done, but we’re obviously keen to have it in place incase a deal comes together in what remains of the window. Arsene should be doing a press conference any minute now, so doubtless he’ll (refuse to) comment on that particularly tidbit.
For what it’s worth, Arshavin did not board the Zenit team bus for their friendly today, remaining in their Dubai hotel. The Guardian, meanwhile, reports that Arshavin, Arsenal, and Zenit are close to a compromise over the moneys involved. I think this one is going to go right to the wire.
Arsenal will apparently turn down a £12m bid for Kolo Toure. That’s an awful lot of money for someone whose seemingly no longer first-choice and has only 18 months remaining on his contract, but I suspect the lack of time to find a suitably replacement is a big factor in our decision.
Like I say, Arsene should be speaking to the press very soon, so there should be news on that as well as West Ham’s game tomorrow morning. Tata for now.
