Arshavin deal breaking down & Eduardo plays again tonight 21 January, 2009

Well it now looks even less likely that Andrei Arshavin will become an Arsenal player this transfer window as negotiations for the Russian have broken down.

What I’ve heard is that we’ve made three offers, the latest one being around £13m. All of which have been rejected because of Zenit making last minute requests right after we’ve made a reasonable offer. If this is correct, I would not be surprised if Arsene Wenger was a bit pissed off about it and was ready to tell Zenit forget about it.

I’ve heard our latest offer has been given to them and it’s a ‘take it or leave it scenario’. If that were the case then I’d expect Zenit to wait out the rest of the window offering themselves up to anyone buying but if nothing came then they might come back to us and accept our offer.

I said yesterday about us apparently refusing to fly to Russia because there was no point in it. Well it all makes a bit more sense now if what I’ve said above is correct. As I say, this is just my understanding of the situation from various sources but it’s fair to say that negotiations aren’t progressing well.

His agent has even come out saying that if it comes to it, Arshavin will buy out his contract in November when he becomes eligible to do so. By November, we won’t really need him anymore; everyone should be back fit and he would be 28-years-old. So if it doesn’t happen in the next couple of weeks I don’t think we’ll ever get him.

I think Wenger will use this time to have a look at what else might be available. If I get any decent stories come my way I will keep you informed but at the moment there are no whispers about anyone.

Eduardo is back in action for the reserves again tonight as they play Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. Last time out he tweaked his hamstring but this time hopefully he’s a bit more match fit and is well on his way to full recovery.

The game’s already underway, so we should get some reports coming through of how we did in a few hours time. By the way, I’ve just heard that Jack Wilshere has scored a brilliant goal to make it 1-1, about half hour gone now.

That’s it for today… it’s another slow week on the news front. Bits and bobs of team news for Cardiff but it’s nothing major and I’ll go through it all in the match preview. The only big-ish story was Gael Clichy missing out after picking up his 5th yellow of the season against Hull. Kieran Gibbs did well last time he was called upon so I’m expecting him just to take his place.

Just before I go… totally irrelevant but I saw this story from Florentino Perez, the ex-Real Madrid president. He’s looking to be re-appointed and has said if elected, he will bring ‘Kaka to the club for around £75m. What the fuck? If Milan couldn’t be tempted by £100m from Man City then why would they suddenly change their mind for £25m less? He also says Arsene Wenger is his no.1 target for the managers job, just weeks after he denied [yet again] that he would move from Arsenal. I wonder how Ramos must feel, he’s been there 5 minutes and there’s already talk of replacing him! Oh it does make me laugh some of the stuff presidential candidates will say.

Anyway, I’m off now. Speak to you tomorrow.