Zenit Pull Plug on Arshavin Deal

Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg have reportedly turned down the chance to sign Arsenal loanee Andrei Arshavin on a permanent basis. Arshavin joined Zenit with seconds left of the Russian transfer window,  in a deal that would see the Russian captain return to his boyhood club for the rest of the season. Despite some poor performances in an Arsenal shirt earlier in the season, the Russian sparkled back in his homeland, helping Zenit to win the title in Russia.

Arshavin captained his country at the European Championships this summer and put in a superb display in Russia’s 4-1 win over the Czechs, playing his part in 2 of the 4 goals his country scored. After that though, Arshavin went missing, as did the rest of his team. After the fine start to the tournament, Russia went crashing out after a 1-1 draw with co-hosts Poland and a surprise 1-0 defeat to the Greeks. Arshavin didn’t make things any better by saying that if people felt let down by the team then it was “their problem”. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go down too well back in Russia, so it appears that Zenit and any other Russian clubs have lost interest. Before the tournament Zenit were reportedly prepared to pay the £8m that the Gunners are asking, but they aren’t so keen now.

This leaves Arsenal and Arshavin in a tough position. Arshavin left Arsenal because he was out of form and the fans were upset with him. If you go back to the game in January against Manchester United, Arsenal fans booed Arsene Wenger’s decision to bring Arshavin on for the impressive Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Needless to say, Arshavin did very little on the pitch that day to justify the substitution. The fact he has upset fans back in Russia gives Arshavin one less escape route. His laziness would be suitable to a league like Italy’s Serie A, but whether a decent Italian club would be prepared to pay his wages is another problem.

He is due back at Arsenal for pre-season training on July 9th, so he could well be going on tour with the Gunners in pre-season, with Arsenal heading all over the world this summer in lucrative pre-season tours of Asia and Nigeria, as well as other games in Europe against Southampton, Anderlecht and FC Cologne. Arsenal will look to offload the Russian, but if they can’t, I’d imagine he’ll be back on the bench, in the reserves and playing in the League Cup team once more until they find a suitor for him. He is an expensive player to have sitting on the bench though, I have no doubt he is on a big deal at the club, seeing as he became our record signing when he joined from Zenit in February 2009.

All I want to know is, what happened to the man that incredibly scored 4 at Anfield a couple of months into his career at the club?. That’s the highlight of his time at Arsenal and he hasn’t done a lot since!. I had so much expectation for him after that, I thought he could be a player that would produce the goods week in, week out for the club. Sadly it didn’t work out that way and with Arshavin aged 31, I can’t see him resurrecting his fading Arsenal career. When you look at his numbers, they aren’t terrible in front of goal and in terms of assists too. If you watch Arsenal often, you will know that Arshavin’s numbers tell a false story. The Russian is so lazy and sloppy with the ball, he often gives it away and the lack of effort really does disappoint. The sad thing is, when he does try, he’s a cracking player. Unfortunately we haven’t seen that enough times in the red and white shirt.