Gunnerblog is reporting that the Arshavin deal has essentially fallen through. Not that he needs any backing up, he’s usually very reliable with inside information, but the story is being picked up more widely and so I feel confident that the clubs have reached an impasse. Well, I say “the clubs have reached an impasse” but in reality Zenit has jerked Arsenal around.
We all knew what they were doing when they revealed to the world Arsenal’s bids; they were basically keeping us at the table, trying to drive up the cost of the player, while very publicly soliciting a higher bid from a club like City. Reputation be damned. Integrity — who needs it? Zenit were going to squeeze every last penny out of this deal and they didn’t care who they used along the way.
Arsenal were pawns.
If you need any further proof that Arsenal were duped and used by these scumbag, lying, racists just witness this quote from an insider:
Arsenal don’t understand what is going on at all – no-one is answering their phone-calls or returning their faxes. What can Arsenal do? It is becoming clear that Zenit are totally nuts. Arsenal might wait one more day, possibly two, but Zenit seem to be football jokers.
In the civil world you don’t make someone wait a week before you return a fax, you don’t tell someone you’ll call them tomorrow and not do it. Zenit don’t care about money, they just seem to have made up their minds not to sell. They have just been playing games, showing they’re tough.
I swear at any moment we’re going to find out that when the Arsenal negotiators got to the table the Zenit chairman was dressed in nothing but a red cape and leather skirt. And when Ivan Gazidis presented Arsenal’s reported £15m offer, the chairman wheeled on him, kicked him onto the floor and screamed “20! WE SAID 20!!!! THIS IS ZENIT!”
If there is any good news to come out of this it’s that, erm… well… it’s that we get to go to Arsene Wenger’s back up plan!
Which is?
I really, really hope this is true. I’ve been following Mate Toth now for, erm, 6 minutes, and he is the best defender I’ve never seen. On a related note, I think that squad number 91 is available which just happens to be the year Mate Toth was born.
What do you think he’ll put on his shirt? Mate? Toth? I’m really hoping he picks Mate, because if he picks Mate the jokes could go forever, mate.
Defensive Mid/Holding Mid/Box-to-box Mid, whatever, let’s get one!
I’ve noticed that lately, box-to-box, defensive, holding, whatever-you-call-them-midfielders have become very expensive: Spurs just paid £14m for Wilson Palacios, Mascherano cost ‘Pool £19m, Felliani cost Everton £15m, and Diarra went for £20m.
Even if you take into account the inflationary costs that Spurs typically pay for players (£31m for bench players Bent and Bentley, selling Defoe for £10 and buying him back for £15, etc, etc.) these latest transfer figures show that a solid central midfielder is going to cost at least £15m. Partially this is because these players have become fashionable (Liverpool play with 2 at all times) and partially this is because this historically undervalued position is now just coming to light as a mainstay of championship quality clubs. Little clubs are no longer going to sell off for cheap a hard working central midfielder just because he doesn’t have the deftest of touch.
Given this, I wonder what Song’s value is on the open market and I wonder where Arsenal are going to find a good midfielder for their cut rate offering price of under £10m?
If Wilson Palacios is worth £14m then isn’t Song worth like £10m? And isn’t that, like, totally insane?
I have no idea who we’ll find for the price of a Song, but if Mate Toth is any indication, Wenger is digging deep into the bowels of Europe searching for just that guy.
Or, we’re just going to have to sit around hoping that Theo Walcott returns to 100% form, that Denilson/Diaby/Song works out, and that Eduardo gets his mojo back. If not, it’s going to be a long 4 months.
Please let Arshavin’s case be put to rest. Arsenal have good players that can win laurrels for them. Soon, Edwardo and Walcott even Rosicky will be back. So, forget Arshavin.
Wilson palacios is a winger
wenger buy diego capel , buy out clause 12 million pounds he is very young , potensial , arsene wenger buy diego capel
The Arshavin saga needs to end this week – well for Arsenal anyways. I said weeks ago that Wenger should have put up an ultimatum that if a deal isn’t done by the end of the first week in January he should have just called it off and give himself 3-4 weeks to look elsewhere. Zenit HAS to sell or risk losing Arshavin for nothing. Wenger knows this and so isn’t sweating over the player because Zenit has everything to lose – it’s a situation where they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Wenger can gain from Arshavin but cannot really lose out if he doesn’t get him. The results we’ve put together lately suggest that we’re back on some kind of form and the other big clubs have not exactly been blowing away their competition. We’re in a very good time to be on form because with Rooney and Young suspended for the Mancs and Villa respectively, Liverpool and Chelsea struggling to grind out the results and the injury list Mancs have, we can make up ground bit by bit. The next couple of game weeks are vital for us to pick up 6 points because I believe this period of time given the circumstances of the other clubs, is where we can launch an assault on their credentials. Our squad is deeper than people want to acknowledge, we’ve just been terribly unlucky with injuries. You plan for maybe 2-3 injuries at a time, not 6-7. This is just an unforseen phenomenon and Wenger has handled it well by not buying more players hastily because really when you start to add more players and then have your existing ones come back, that’s just extra egos to manage. I don’t think fans realize this.
At this moment whoever appears in peoples’ minds they just pressurise (aw )to buy yet he considers quality than numbers.Fans focus be4 forcing our man to make blunders at last.Uga-nners paradise in uganda is still looking for arshavin to intervene with rvp so as to produce something hot and busting.till then with gunners.
No more moobs, please. Thank you.
Well the deal’s not dead but the probability that it goes through is falling as zenit aren’t really in negotiations with anyone, they just want 20 and that’s it, at least we reportedly increased our offer. Zenit clearly don’t know who they’re dealing with as wenger is probably salivating at the prospect of making a stand on principle here as he did with alonso.
As for a back up it’s probably the same as the summer – hoping players return from injury in time to make the difference this season. However, i argue that we don’t really have a player like arshavin who can give us so much more than what we have out injured. Arshavin is comparable in quickness to rosicky and walcott but has so much more game – guile, threat and intelligence(experience). I think we lose out if we dont’ get him, he’ll make any team he goes to much better. I hope the fall back plan doesn’t involve youth who can’t step up immediately we’re overloaded with those. I don’t think wenger is really convinced with any of his midfielders as they all have drawbacks to their games, until that’s sorted it looks like midfield by committee for a time yet.
People keep saying that we have a host of players coming back from injury, as if they have expect these players to start contributing immediately although they have been out for prolonged periods.
RVP has only now returned to his previous form and Drogba still hasn’t reached match form yet. We can’t realistically expect Rosicky, Eduardo and Walcott to be major contributors for the rest of the season and Fabregas will only be coming back with a few games to go.
The question therefore is whether we add new, experienced blood right now in order to compete for the 4th spot or keep the squad intact and pray Villa screws up. It’s a big gamble which I wouldn’t take, but then again, my name is not Wenger.
I agree with Carib. As much as I love Rosicky (Have I mentioned this 3000 times on this website? Good, good) there’s no way he’ll come back soon enough to make an impact. IF there is SOME act of GOD that allows him to recover from his…inhuman injury I doubt he’ll hit top form quickly enough to make an impact. Anyway, Zenit can not NOT sell Arshavin to Arsenal, if he buys out his contract, they’re pretty much screwed and since their tactic of trying to garner interest from big clubs isn’t working, they don’t really have a choice. That’s not just an opinion, or a professional opinion (which I am), that’s PROFESSIONAL FACT.
Frenchie, that is why the deal is not dead, but we’ve been pipped for players before by those managers ‘clever’ enough to outbid our final bid. The fact that Ashavin wants to leave and his agent tags us as his primary solution we still lead the pack for his signature. Zenit is leaving a bad impression with everyone at the moment. Barca stopped their bid at 12 over the summer, how much more can zenit expect. Also, notice the the player is not saying anything about any potential moves to any specific clubs other than to say he wants a new challenge, he’s been burned by zenit enough.
Reminds me of the time I bought my house.
I put in a bid.
Owner came back and said that another buyer has put in a bid and do I want to up my bid?
I said no. My initial bid stands.
I bought the house for the initial bid price.
I never liked that owner.
Hopefully this all works out. Just thought I would pass this (pops) along. I think it’s the first time I have read about Alex Hleb actually saying something nice about his former club.