Andrei Arshavin is a sublime footballer. But he’s not match fit right now.
This transfer was brinkmanship. This time brinkmanship seems to have worked. We expect the Zenit playmaker to be announced as an Arsenal player today.
But brinkmanship doesn’t always work, as we saw on the last day of the summer window, when Arsenal failed to sign Xabi Alonso because Ken Friar/Arsene Wenger/Danny Fiszman refused to pay another £2 million to Liverpool for an experienced holding midfielder, which Arsenal badly needed to replace Gilberto and Flamini.
The Arshavin transfer was an on/off/on/off/on deal that went to the wire on Monday, February 2nd, a day when, during negotiations with Arsenal, Zenit offered Arshavin to two other clubs. We don’t yet know who those clubs were.
Fans had to suffer up till 16.59 p.m on the last day and it was only at 7pm that a Russian news report confirmed that Putin’s favourite player had joined Arsenal.
I’m a massive Arshavin fan and always thought the deal would happen.
I was cool about it yesterday, not stressing at all. But I was getting calls from agitated Gooners all day, from 9 am till 7pm. And by 7pm I was getting really sick of talking about Arshavin, and tired of talking about what Arsenal need as a team and as a club.
Arshavin is a phenomenal footballer and will soon prove that. He is far better than Hleb or Modric or Rosicky.
He can revive a morose crowd and spark the team into life, but he will not be able to do it overnight. He is a player for March, rather than February. But he will show his class soon enough. He has balance, awareness, vision, world class skills. He can make goals and score them. He is more two-footed than Overmars or Pires.
So I’m excited. The thing that’s most exciting in football is major talent, so I’m excited. When Arshavin scores his first goal, I’ll be very excited. But I’m also patient and Gooners will have to be patient too because the new guy has not played football for a long time. The Russian season ends in November and he’s been at a pre-season training camp in Dubai. But he has just been training to keep fit. He didn’t play in Zenit’s friendly matches there.
So it’s a bit unrealistic to think Andrei Arshavin can come on as a sub at White Hart Lane on Sunday.
That’s the first thing that fans have to understand : Arshavin is not match fit. By contrast, Tottenham’s new signings Palacios and Robbie Keane are match fit.