Arshavin – Good or Bad?

By: travis | January 7th, 2009

The rumors are starting to heat up, with the Arshavin to Arsenal possibility looking stronger and stronger. I say that as a result of it being posted on the BBC Sport main page, as a story has come out revealing Zenit Coach Dick Advocaat ‘confirming’ the transfer speculation. Now just because the head coach has mentioned something may happen does not guarantee Arsenal splashing out the cash demands that Zenit have placed on their star midfielder. I happen to trust the BBC more than other random football sites all over the web. That’s just me though. The Mirror also has something up saying that he’s in London on the verge of a £10million deal.

What is clear at this point is this rumor will not go away. It’s guaranteed to be one of those long, drawn out sagas, and every time you read something new you would just wish that the agents and executives could just stop talking to the press for one minute. Then again, perhaps then I wouldn’t have anything to blog about. What I’d like to do here is debate the merits of a transfer – for the right price of course – of Arshavin. He’s a player that I’ve thought to be a tad overrated, and would have expected him to already have been bought by a bigger club if he was THAT good.

Clearly, given the injury state of our midfield, my first instinct is that he would be a good buy. Again, when I say good buy, I mean something less than the £20m that Zenit have supposedly asked for him. He’s got experience in two big tournaments – UEFA Cup and Euro 2008 – where he competed with some of the best players and best teams in the world. All those are quite obvious though. But I wonder how he would fit into the current Arsenal side. Would you play him alongside Diaby, Song, and Nasri? That can’t be all too imposing. How would he be used? In a central role, or an attacking central role? Hard things to determine, and I guess I haven’t seen him enough to gauge where he would fit well.

A sentiment that Arseblog wrote about this morning, and one that I agree with is that he would be a good signing provided that he isn’t the only one brought in. Arshavin would provide more teeth to our attack, but where we’ve been struggling the most has been at the back. So bring in a Flamini-type player, or perhaps a new centerback, and this mysterious player would go well along with Arshavin. A midfield of Theo, Cesc, Nasri, and Arshavin would be fairly nice, in my opinion – but perhaps not the strongest on the defensive side. Needless to say, we’ll see how this ends up and I’ll be here sharing my thoughts – please do so as well.

Just for fun, here is a look at some highlights of the Russian ’star.’