Ok, so everyone is salivating at the prospect of Andrei Arshavin coming to the Emirates, and as usual Fabregas the King is going to play party pooper and dare to suggest that this is all a fuss about nothing. I argue that if anyone with half a brain sat down and looked at the facts, then there is much to indicate that this transfer talk is mainly smoke and mirrors. For a start, Arshavin would be a Nasri clone, and why would Arsene Wenger bring in another attacking midfielder aged 27? Come on, Arsene is not that stupid. Add to that the very public discussion about a supposed Arsenal target, but have you heard a peep from Le Boss?
Look at the interviews, the talk is about a transfer and him leaving the club in 10 to 14 days according to Advocaat the manager of Zenit. Cue the agent of Arshavin wading in and claiming that the club are inflating the fee and making a move difficult. Add to this that Arshavin will be able to buy out his final year of his contract from July 2009 or later walk free on a Bosman at it’s expiry , and you will see why Zenit are desperate to sell him. Do not forget also that Arshavin’s wage demands will be a deal breaker. £60,000 a week is totally unrealistic for a player who has never played in the Premiership, and whose Euro 2008 performances were to put it kindly inconsistent.
Remember that it was the desperate Zenit St Petersburg who broke the news that Arsenal had made an enquiry. As far as I am aware Arsenal Football club have NOT made a formal offer and much of this hot air is being generated by Zenit because they want others, (queue Man City or Tottenham) to come in for him. The very fact that Middlesborough are playing hard ball with Stewart Downing, after three formal Tottenham bids, means that they (the scum) will revert to type and try to snatch Arshavin from their deadly enemies (us). Exactly what we want them to do. Which leads me to stick my neck out as usual and guide those Gooners who still have some degree of sanity left to consider my hypotheses.
I predict that Tottenham will be the eventual destination of Arshavin at a much inflated £18 million. God only knows where the scum are getting all this money from, but I suspect that all this talk is quite convenient for Arsene Wenger. All of this Arshavin speculation will retain the focus of the feeding frenzied press pack whilst he actually QUIETLY goes about securing his real transfer targets. In my view it’s not Matthew Upson either who is extremely overpriced at £12 million and at 29yrs old would be a geriatric in terms of the rest of the squad. So who could be the real targets for Le Boss this transfer window?
I suspect that the real targets are either Yaya Toure of Barcelona or Michael Johnson of Manchester City. Which brings us back to the departure of Kolo Toure. Why sell Kolo to Man City if we have no replacement. Michael Johnson is a possible Wenger buy, the 20 yr old defensive midfielder is the perfect Flamini replacement and seeing as Mark Hughes refuses to let attacking midfielder Steven Ireland go, there must be something coming our way from Eastlands surely? The other need is a centre back. I just wonder if Cristian Zapata, the 22 yr old Columbian defender from Serie A’s Udinese (pictured above) who has recovered from his fractured cheek bone is back on the radar?
This brings me back to the another possible target. There is some whispered talk of Niklas Bendtner being lined up to go to Bayern Munich. This speculation if true is very interesting. We need a right side winger whilst Theo Walcott is out of sorts, and Franck Ribery was an Arsenal target of two summers ago. It might just be that Ivan Gazidis is working on this transfer. Bayern reportedly want £20 million from Arsenal for this deal, and if Bendtner goes the other way, then a more realistic £10 million would be the case.
All this transfer speculation goes to show, that Gooners should just calm down and wait for the official announcements from the club as much of the noise out there in the media is very un-Arsenal like. I have added my two penny’s worth only because people who know me as a blogger will confirm that I say it as I see it even if it goes against the flow, I do not follow the pack like a demented sheep sniffing magic mushrooms. Arsene Wenger is building his team based on youth, economy and value for money like FREEbets blog as well as keeping his wage structure intact, which is precisely why it leads me to suspect that Andrei Arshavin will never be a Gunner.
Fabregas the King.