Family matters: Arshavin with partner Yulia and
daughter Alina
What we are dealing with here is a clash of cultures.
Andrey Arshavin has just been given an opportunity to retract, or
at least clarify, some pretty incendiary views on women drivers and
has chosen instead to stand by every word and add a few
more.
Katya, our charming interpreter, who has translated all this
without a blink of her blue eyes, then attempts to place the man,
and his opinions, in context.
'Russia can be a very chauvinistic society,' she says. 'There is
a saying: "A chicken is not a bird, and a woman is not a person".'
Noticing my look of horror, she quickly adds: 'No, no, we do not
mind. If you said that to a Russian woman, she would laugh.'
And Arshavin is unreconstructed Russian in as much as he speaks
his mind. Ask about the future of
Arsenal, the best
footballer in the world or his hopes for the Champions League final
and a straight answer is returned.
In the next breath, he agonises that he would not get into the
current Barcelona team and, misunderstanding a question about
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, places himself at the outer
reaches of the top 100 players in the world. It could be false
modesty.
Arshavin is plainly a devastating footballer, but he needs to
drag this Arsenal team with him if he is to realise his ambitions
in the Premier League.
Today, Arsenal play the supporting role in what is expected to
be Manchester United's coronation. Even if they spoil the
celebrations at Old Trafford with a victory, it will only underline
Arsenal's potential, a most frustrating commodity when allied to
inconsistency.
'I am not very excited about playing in a game in which another
team will be crowned champions,' said Arshavin.
'Arsenal have not achieved good results in the last few years,
but that is easily explained because the team is so young. I
believe we are now at a point where it will begin to work for us
and enable the team to start scoring and move on as Manchester
United did.
'A few years ago, they had young players like Wayne Rooney and
Ronaldo, who were very promising, but they did not win the league
and achieve the right results. Now they are older, they cannot stop
winning. Arsenal have been recruiting players for two years, so I
do not predict results a long way in the future: I predict them for
next season, if we can add some others to our team.'
Arshavin's roots are in St Petersburg, a city he loves and
misses greatly. He grew up in a Soviet-style communal flat, three
families with one room each but a shared bathroom and kitchen. It
has been painted as a life of grinding poverty, sleeping on floors,
but Arshavin says he was comfortable. 'I knew nothing else.'
His life improved when he became a full-time player at Zenit
(making his debut at Valley Parade, of all places, against Bradford
City in the Intertoto Cup) and began receiving his wages in hard
cash. His love of his homeland is pervasive but, since the age of
11, the spirit of his football has been housed at the Nou Camp,
Barcelona.
He fell in love with the Catalan club after watching them win
the European Cup final against Sampdoria in 1992 and only Zenit St
Petersburg's insistence on a transfer fee above 15million euros
prevented him achieving a lifelong dream by signing for them last
season.
Arsenal came up with the money in January and, for Arshavin, an
ambition to play attacking, creative football makes them, for want
of a better phrase, Barcelona Lite.
'I did have an offer from Barcelona but Zenit were not happy. I
try not to think about what could have happened and at least at
Arsenal I am playing. At Barcelona I think I would be sitting on
the bench, like Aleksandr Hleb.
'Which player could I replace? Thierry Henry? No, he is too good
and I think Messi will be the World Player of the Year. If I could
vote it would be for Messi. Even if you just count the goals and
the beautiful passes and look at it statistically, Messi would win
over Ronaldo. It has been close but Messi has been better. So where
would I play at Barcelona?
'Last season, once I knew I was leaving St Petersburg, the
choice was always England or Spain, never Italy. I think the
English league right now is the best league there has ever been,
whereas in Italy it is very defensive, very closed football. I do
not like it. I enjoy the honesty of English football, because
nobody gives up, and almost all the best players are here. Italian
football is at the bottom because of all those scandals. Their
league is not very interesting.
'Think of Chelsea. If you watch how Chelsea play, they can kill
any team, not by fighting, but with the way the midfield play.
Frank Lampard, John Mikel Obi, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack,
they will destroy you, they will damage you with their power.
Chelsea have a good team but it is not football with emotion:
one goal and then (blows raspberry, folds arms) boring again.
Always. I like teams that are more open. I like style.'
Now this might sound a bit rich from a player whose team has
just lost 4-1 to Chelsea at home, but Katya identified the Russian
characteristic as opinionated - she did not mention logical - and
perhaps Arshavin was referring more to the 1-1 draw with his
beloved Barcelona at Stamford Bridge, rather than the debacle at
the Emirates Stadium that followed.
Andrey Arshavin isn't short of an opinion or two, whether it be
on football, politics or women drivers! The striker, who came close
to standing in local elections back home in Russia, could be
forgiven for being wary of all drivers after surviving being
knocked down as a child. The driver of that car was a man, but that
hasn't stopped Arshavin from telling the Russian press: 'If I had
it in my power to introduce a ban on women driving cars and to
withdraw all their licences I would do it without thinking twice.'
So far, long-term girlfriend Yulia has kept mum on the subject but,
with the suspicion his comments may have been lost in translation,
MARTIN SAMUEL offered Arshavin the opportunity to put the record
straight. This is what he had to say…
