Loading ...Aug 20 2008
Andrei Arshavin Saga One Step Closer to Being Finished
Two months of the Andrei Arshavin saga will end next weekend when the international transfer window closes, but unless Zenit St. Petersburg shows some new-found willingness to compromise their position, that window may as well be closed now, as it concerns Arshavin.
On the club’s web site, Zenit announced that they will not be selling Arshavin. They were unable to come to an agreement with Tottenham, who the player and agent had zero’d in on as Arshavin’s best chance of moving this summer. Wanting two weeks to replace the Russian Player of the Year, the inability to get the deal done today has Zenit convinced not to sell him.
We will see how they feel next week or after Spurs have the money they could get from a Dimitar Berbatov sale. Still, until there are new developments, Tottenham will be without David Villa (who Valencia has no intention of selling), Arshavin (who Zenit will not sell for less than £24 million), or anybody who can replace Robbie Keane. With Tottenham’s attack looking so impotent this weekend without Robbie Keane (and a benched Dimitar Berbatov), Juande Ramos’s decision to sell his talisman before having a real replacement stands to sink Spurs’ season.
Meanwhile, Zenit sits in eighth place in the Russian Premier League table. Their title hopes are too slim to be serious, with eleven points and six teams between them and first place FC Rubin Kazan. The team can no longer hope that the games in hand they accumulated during their UEFA Cup run would even out the table, as they have now caught up to the league’s other teams in games played.
Beyond the Champions League, where Zenit is entered into the group stage, Zenit needs to focus on qualifying for European football. They sit three points out of UEFA Cup qualification and five points away from a Champions League spot, but they are no longer passing through the league’s soft middle (as they did in climbing from the bottom to their current spot). CSKA Moscow sits in fifth, Spartak Moscow is in fifth, and Lokomotiv (in seventh) is also chasing European football. If Zenit’s to qualify for Europe, a good club will be left out.
With that task ahead of them and the desire to show well in Champions League, you can’t blame Zenit for wanting to hold on to their best player. Between injuries, Euro 2008, and a mini-strike, Dick Advocaat has not had a prolonged spell with his best player in the lineup. The club may be interested in seeing what it can do when he’s in the lineup for (say) a month straight, and it is not unreasonable to want time to replace their star.
Now it appears they don’t have to worry about it. Arshavin is likely to stay.
Links
Zenit refuses to sell Arshavin to Tottenham
Arshavin’s Spurs move hopes ended
No Spurs move for Arshavin
Zenit slam door on Tottenham’s Arshavin bid
Arshavin saga over say Zenit
Agent: Arshavin demanded too much
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