• Arsène Wenger feels Russian is surplus to
requirements
• Club hope to recoup the £15m paid to Zenit St Petersburg
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.
