Posted by 9jabook.com on April 21, 2009 at 11:33am
He's a one-season wonder. He's too old for a big move now. He's too expensive. He's not what Arsenal need - another attacking midfielder.
Actually, he's the man who just scored four goals against Liverpool at Anfield. He's Andrey Arshavin.
They don't make good signings. Everyone they snap up is either too young, too old, or too injured. Arsenal can't leap forward again. They need to put their hands in their pockets. What's Wenger up to?
Well, it may be true that Arsenal have had their transfer market scrapes, but in Andrey Arshavin they have, in a sense, unearthed an absolute diamond.
In fact, unearthed is completely the wrong word, for this diamond was on a pedestal in St. Petersburg. Like a Romanov heirloom he was on display for all to see - but not to be touched.
That was until after his UEFA Cup and Euro 2008 campaigns which saw him not only alert Europe's top clubs to his expertise, but also awakened him more than ever to the prospect of the chance at trying his luck at a higher level than the Russian Premier League.
True, one can say that his attempts to secure a transfer undermined his boyhood club and at times were undignified. But from Arsenal's side of things, the Gunners plugged away quietly, without ostentation, until they got their man.
When they did, many of the same pundits who had spent 2008 praising Andrei were quick to cluck their tongues. After all, he was 27 by then, barely had any continental experience, and had been involved in transfer negotiations so Byzantine that he only just beat the extended deadline to head to English. He was a parvenu in every sense.
But in Arshavin's performance on Tuesday night at Anfield, we saw that class, in fact, is not the privelege only of the high-born. Arshavin is every inch a Premier League player - and a Premier League star, to boot.
Witness his showing against Liverpool. To be uncharitable, one would say: four shots, four goals, a fluke. Nonsense. Predatory instinct, and a classy finish, is exactly what you need when you come up against a European-place contender on their own patch. Arshavin had this in spades.
What's more, he also had speed to cope with what we are told is the fastest top-level league in the world. Even though he's been playing summer football for years, even though prior to joining Arsenal he was sitting in the stands, even though he's wrestled with injury, he unleashed pace that was, in the words of my colleague Greg Ptolomey, "terrifying".
In other words, Arshavin has proved beyond doubt that he is the genuine article, and Arsenal have a legitimate claim to having made the best signing of 2009 so far - and possibly of the year to come, too.
As for Arsenal, their softly-softly approach to the transfer market may not have been vindicated this season, but if they can make one other mid-to-high signing, perhaps in defence, it may well be next year. This is one fiscal decision the London club definitely got right. For the sake of their fans, and indeed Premier League viewers the world over, here's to many more.
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