Arsenal prepared to sell Andrey Arshavin to fund new signings
• Arsène Wenger feels Russian is surplus to requirements
• Club hope to recoup the £15m paid to Zenit St Petersburg
David Hytner guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 May 2011 22.00 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/17/arsenal-andrey-arshavin-new-signings

Arsenal are prepared to sell Andrey Arshavin in the summer to fund the building of a new squad. Arsène Wenger has begun to cast the net for new signings and is understood to have indicated that Arshavin is surplus to requirements at the Emirates Stadium. The club would want to recoup the £15m that they paid to Zenit St Petersburg in January 2009 and could reason that now is the time to do so, as Arshavin has two years to run on his contract and there has been little desire on either side to open negotiations over fresh terms. The difficulty, though, would be to find a club willing to match his £85,000-a-week wage.

It may come as a surprise to realise that Arshavin is comfortably Arsenal's appearance leader this season, with 51 in all competitions of which 15 have come as a substitute. He has contributed 10 goals, and the Arsenal manager has expressed the view that the forward's "numbers" have been acceptable. Yet some of his performances have not met the standards expected of him and, for the first time in his Arsenal career, the Russia international has found himself on the outside looking in when Wenger names his strongest XI in the Premier League. Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri have established themselves ahead of Arshavin on the flanks, which has been the source of no little frustration and bemusement to him.

Arshavin has faced questions about his attitude, with a section of the Emirates crowd criticising him for a perceived lack of effort. His laid-back body language does not help in this regard but there has also been a feeling inside the dressing room that Wenger has indulged the player, who turns 30 on Sunday week, absolving him of the responsibility to track back. Arshavin has infuriated some of his team-mates in training with his lack of work ethic. Wenger has felt that Arshavin's mercurial genius can compensate for the negatives but his patience has worn thin. Arshavin, who is known for his self-confident and outspoken nature, did not help himself last season when, on more than one occasion, he went public over his "dream" of joining Barcelona; even Wenger had to tell him to quieten down.

It is unclear precisely how much money Wenger will have to spend this summer. Supporters, who have been asked to pay an extra 6.5% on their tickets for next season, hope it is a considerable amount though many of them wonder what became of the £39m that Wenger raised through the sales of Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City in 2009, which did not appear to be reinvested in the squad. Wenger, however, is aware of the need to wheel and deal and Arshavin has been identified as a saleable asset.

The manager, as usual, is channelling most of his efforts into the French and African markets and he is not expected to splash out on expensive, big-name additions. He has said that his priority is to keep his existing key players, chiefly the captain, Cesc Fàbregas, who is a perennial target for his former club Barcelona, and Nasri, who is yet to sign a new contract and is poised to enter the final 12 months of his deal. Gaël Clichy also has 12 months to run but Wenger is confident of Kieran Gibbs's ability to step up, if required.

I think if we get half of what we paid we should let him go. High earner, capable of magic but his decent stats this season hide the number of errors and times he has been caught on the ball or run into dead ends.

Looking at his goals/assist ratio, it's frightening to think what they could have been if he played even half decent a lot of the time.

That's exactly the frustration with Arshavin. He's got the talent to be amazing but that just isn't enough, and in his time here to date I cannot help but see him as a perennial underachiever. I'd be very surprised if he went in the Summer as there's seemingly a few bodies already destined to be shipped out, and I'd be happy for him to stay on another season because he does add some value to our squad (and we don't have a massive amount of players who can play out wide) but there's definately a feeling that we could do better than the Russian - And given his age and wages perhaps this Summer is the most appropriate time to cash in, recoup a decent fee and buy a replacement. But again, I'd be very surprised if Arshavin actually moved on to pastures new.

Utter madness is we sold him. The only player in the squad that actually tries to attack the goal and shoot instead of opting for the pass like most. There are plenty in the squad that should be binned before Arshavin!

He's been our most consistantly available player, but other than that Arsharvin has really failed to prove himself to be consistant performer in this league. And I don't really care that he's score 10 goals, in his general play there's a real lack of both physical and technical ability, very rarely breaking past the defensive line to cause any serious threat.

Wenger must surely see this, and for a player pushing 30, it's just not going to get any easier for him.

Well he is hardly alone in that department, is he? Nasri was one of our stars in the 2010 half of the season but has gone totally to the opposite direction in the 2011 half hardly contributing anything despite his vast playing time. In fact Samir has been so dire recently I hardly noticed him missing in the couple of last matches. Walcott has been one of our most inconsistent players mixing the good displays with embarassing ones and has been able to go missing totally in a game and still that's a remarkable improvement from last season when he mixed the embarassing displays with the crappy ones.



Often the one coming from the bench always the first to be subbed when he starts Arshavin has been good if not great this season. In fact Nasri has started more games than Arshavin and Arshavin has only played 6 premiership games this season from start to finish versus Nasri's 18. Arshavin has also assisted the most premiership goals this season tied in first place with Fabregas. Also out of those wide attackers Arshavin is the only one who has stood out with spirited defensive display's and thus for me he is the best of the bunch out of those wide attackers.

Selling him would only make sense if there is as good a replacement coming in as he is but younger.

The stats hide too much for me. I agree that Nasri has been every bit as poor since the turn of the year as Arshavin, but he is better in possession in the main. Arshavin's decent games (Villa springs to mind) still involved a lot of dead end running, tripping on the ball and general wastefulness. And whilst he upped his work rate in some games, in others he was still running as little as Baptista did a few seasons back.

I agree not selling him unless we have replacements coming through, but I really dont see how we could or should turn down an offer over £7 million or so to look elsewhere for a replacement. I can think of many in the premiership at that price who would be a lot more effective, for example NZogbia for one..

We should not even be considering selling him. He's a good player. I would like to see him deployed in the middle just behind Van Persie. I dont think we have any genuine, oldfashioned wingers at the club. The ones who are tricky and can beat a man and put in a pinpoint accurate cross. Players like Quaresma, Navas, Di Maria, are what I would class as your typical winger. I wonder wat results we would get deploying him behind the main striker? I think a lot of you will be surprised if we tried this.

The trouble with Arshavin, for me anyway, is that he doesn't seem like an Arsenal player. What I mean by that is he seems to play for Arshavin rather than playing for Arsenal. A player who will put in a good performance when he feels like it but won't go that extra yard to help the team. If Arshavin is having a bad game he gets frustrated and upset at himself, rather than working extra hard to correct it.

It's a similar thing to how I felt about Gallas. A great player but I never felt he was playing for the team and I never felt any dissapointment in seeing him leave. I feel I would have similar feelings was Arshavin to follow a similar departure.

I think one thing Arshavin has proved at Arsenal, particularly in his first few months at the club, is how much a direct winger can change our player. Its a shame that Arshavin has never quite lived up to his full potential, he kinda reminds me of that kid at school who doesn't revise but will still ace the test

I'd like to keep him purely because 10 goals and 18 assists is excellent and will be very hard to replace especially if we lose one of Nasri/Fabregas.

Wenger expects Arshavin stay
Gunners boss has no plans to part with Russian playmaker
By Chris Burton, May 19, 2011
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 87,00.html

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is confident Andrey Arshavin will see out the summer at Emirates Stadium. The Russian playmaker has struggled to produce his best this season, sparking speculation regarding his future. A return to Zenit St Petersburg has been touted, with his former employers admitting that they would welcome him back with open arms. It has also been suggested that Wenger is ready to offload a number of players this summer as he endeavours to piece together a squad capable of landing major honours. Arshavin was understood to be one of those the Frenchman was willing to let go, allowing him to bring in funds which could be put to better use elsewhere. Wenger, though, is adamant that he has no plans to part with a player he spent around £15million on in January 2009. He told Arsenal TV: "Yes, I expect him to be at Arsenal next season."

I guess the report that he was being sold is not true then? I thought it might have been. I'm torn because there's been times that he has looked indifferent. But then you look at his statistical return and he seems to be important. I think I'd prefer he stays. That ability to do something out of nothing is important. I wonder if he struggled with fitness at times.

On the fence but definitely leaning towards keep him. Too much quality. Perhaps we need to be a bit more savvy as to the amount of games he plays. I think he had the most appearances for us this year.

I dont read much into this. Wenger rarely says a player can leave, and we'd want to get a good fee for Arshavin so wont publicly make him available. I still think that if we were offered £10 million we would take it, and that we should.

Andrey Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak train with Zenit St Petersburg
Russian forwards will train with old club to maintain fitness for international fixtures at the end of the season
By Gareth McKnight, May 21, 2011 9:41:00 AM
http://www.goal.com/en/news/553/russia/ ... h-zenit-st?

Russia international strike duo Andrey Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak are to train with old club Zenit St Petersburg for the upcoming weeks to maintain fitness ahead of the country's international fixture in June, according to Sport. Arshavin's Arsenal play their final Premier League fixture this weekend while Stuttgart, for whom Pogrebnyak features, ended their Bundesliga campaign last weekend. Dick Advocaat's national side have a game against Armenia on June 4 at home, and face a battle to qualify for next year's European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. Russia sit equal on 10 points with Republic of Ireland and Slovakia in Group B of the qualifiers, in one of the tightest groups.

Choice of word by Wenger was 'expected' does that mean the manager sees no potential change of club or that he wants to keep the player and vice versa?

I have been appalled with him at times this season, he's looked disinterested and at his wage level that isn't for me acceptable. We cannot afford passengers. On the other hand the intensity of the game in England may just be approving too much for him. Because of that perhaps he is losing the ability to burst past players. His goals and assists record isn't at all bad, far from it. Perhaps we would get out of him in different circumstances, but clearly too many players being carried of late and you cannot afford luxury players, at least not too many.

Perhaps Wenger knows the club are unlikely to receive a good offer for him which is what he means by expected.