Arshavin deal off — what is Arsenal's back up plan?

I'm pulling my hair out to Andrei

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!”

this-is-zenit1

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?

Mate Toth.

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.

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