Andrey Arshavin, remember him?
Tubby little fella, infectious laugh, cheeky grin, arrived in London hanging on the coattails of a blizzard, impish baller turned saggy sub, smacked four past Liverpool one barmy night in April 2009? Yeah you know the one…
Well according to the Evening Standard he’s thinking about hanging up his boots this summer despite the fact he’s only 32.
It seems an extreme decision, but then things haven’t really gone to plan for the man Arsene Wenger signed from Zenit St Petersburg over four years ago. A marquee signing if ever there was one at the Emirates his career now more closely resembles a tent swallowed by a hurricane.
A near ever present in his first couple of years in London, despite erratic form, he never seemed to get to grips with the physicality and pace of the Premier League (all that running around and whatnot) and was eventually reduced to the bench last season before retreating to the sanctity of his hometown on loan with Zenit.
Having won the Russian title while in St Petersburg it was firmly believed that Arshavin would make a permanent switch to the Petrovsky Stadium in the summer. Alas, following a below-par Euro 2012 – and some ill-advised comments about his country’s fans – he found himself an isolated figure and returned to a pre-season at Arsenal with little chance of regaining a first team place.
This term Arshavin has started two Premier League games, lost his place in the Russian national team under management from Fabio Capello and reportedly rejected the chance to move to Reading in January despite the Royals lodging an accepted £1 million bid. Complications in his private life have further compounded his misery.
While it is not confirmed that Arshavin will be retiring when his contract with Arsenal ends this summer it does look as though he’s given up on any semblance of a career at the highest level. A man who courted Barcelona, made Zenit a household name, wowed the crowds at Euro 2008 and captured the imagination of Gooners worldwide with flashes of brilliance looks to have given up. It’s a real shame.
Arseblog News lets out a sigh and can’t help but wonder what might have been…
A Real Shame this is. He should go join King Henry at NY Red Bulls.
yeah ,they’ll worship him there . I will
May be he should open a brothel instead, for a lazy fuck like him.
Proof that football is proper f@#€ d. Arshavin has done nothing for the past two years and now he can afford to retire – good luck to him, we are the mugs paying his wages
Good for him. Lives for foot ball players shouldn’t drag on unless they’re performing. He’ll still be his same old cuddly self even without the aura of those wonderful magic moments. I wish he’d featured a bit more often because everyones seen him when he’s on top of his game. And that sort of magic wasted is a real bummer. He’ll still align himself on the cosmic realm of which football is merely a part, and this guy is lucky as a freshman virgin on his first day of college. I’m sure he’ll enjoy life. ANDREY!!!
Someone should start up a club for has been footballers called Real Shame. It would be great, well, it might have been.
wasn’t there one at some point? I think it was called Bolton Wanderers
such a talent………..sure with a little more work rate and the boss playing him in his preferd position…….he might just become a very special player for us…….shame though cause he is a bag of talent…….smh
…………………… …. ……. …. ………..
Played in his preferred position a few times and wasted every one. This was not the reason for his decline
Never had as many opportunities as Ramsey in his preferred position yet he is still given many chances.
Ramsey is hardworking and full of potential that’s why he gets rewarded with a place in the team…Arshavin is talented but would struggle to tie his own shoe.
Iam a manager I deploy rambo more.
Everytime hes played in his prefered posistion hes played well tho the number of time hes done so are very small.
I dunno, he always seemed to do well when he played in the center. Remember that Carling Cup game, against Bolton I think, he scored and assisted Park! Strange game that was.
What a shame. He was a fantastic talent and had more to show than just that 4-4 game. Pity if its his fitness (which suddenly improved during internationals) or just his mentality that hindered his progress at Arsenal.
Will always love the Russian but in my opinion, he should go back to Russia. They adore him there.
There’s that Aviva advert where Paul Whitehouse is dressed up as a …. not fat…. cuddly, italian running a small restaurant.
Even before these retirement rumours, I could image Arshavin ending up being slightly tubby and running something similar. Or maybe even a burger stand between Finsbury Park and our stadium.
just wanted to say i laughed out loud a fuck load at your 10 things youd rather see than na$ri hugging the skunk. especially the nazi in the arc one, quality writing
And there was me under the impression that he retired years ago..
Please don’t prove the anti Arsenal cretins at the evening standard right…
Nooooo. Does this mean the end of arshavin in the arsecast?!
Nah,the material that blogs could do if he does retire, well, it’s endless really.
But maybe just the secret track at the end of the Arsecast:
Arshavin on life, dole queues and how he is breaking into the movies with a “massive” part in the new compare the meerkat advertisement.
What a waste…
blogs should make a compilation of all the Arshavin clips from the Arsecast. I’d pay .99 USD for that.
$99 you say!
This makes me sad. Really sad. His time at arsenal has not been worth writing home about when it really should have been.
I feel it was either staying to play in london or staying completely out of the game. ( ._.)
Has Wenger ever made a good signing for 13+ mil?
Off the top of my head there’s Arshavin, Reyes and possibly Wiltord. Cazorla’s the exception that proves the rule and Na$ri doesn’t count because he’s a cunt.
In conclusion, Arsenal spend too much money on transfers and should consider investing more of their earnings on wages and dividends for the hard-working board members.
Nasri should count because he was as a bad signing. Played some OK football, six months of very good play. Bottles it, like a lot of the players at the end of the season then fucks off to Man City like a total moaning ball bag. Although to be fair I’m pretty sure he cost 10mil anyway. Never mind, calling Nasri a cunt is never a waste of time.
To me Nasri wasn’t such a bad signing. Just a horrible little bugger. He played ok for the 2 seasons we had him and we sold him for almost twice what we paid.
Good business
more to the point, have we ever made a greaat signing in january? i thought arshavin was the one…
Potentially Nacho if he carries on this way…
Theo was a Jan signing. Hmm… jury’s still out I guess.
I’d say Wiltord was a success. He was a good squad player behind some world class strikers. He did as he was asked, never really made a fuss and could be relied on to fill a gap
@Doc. Agreed up to a point. It always felt like we’d payed a bit over the odds for a player we never quite got.
I wonder why you have arbitrarily choosen 13mil, when only a handful of players was ever bought above that mark, while lots of other were bought for only a slighly smaller price for 10-12m, e.g. Ox for 12m+. Anyway, while for the most of those 13m+ players it’s true they weren’t a huge sucess, most of them were sold for the same price, or a significantly larger price (as with Nasri), so I personally don’t count that for a huge failure either. Still, there is certain mr. T. Henry who was bought for 13m+… 😉 The other point of view… Read more »
I think Henry was bought for around 10 mil but you make a good point about the lack of big money transfer flops under Wenger. While I would still argue many of the 13mil + crew wouldn’t be considered good signings, they were never complete disasters. Arshavin may go down as the worst value for money in Wenger’s time here, which isn’t too bad when you look at the Andy Carrolls and Fernando Torres’ of this world.
Also kudos for ignoring my half-hearted attempt at trolling earlier, either that or no-one read to the end of that comment.
Fair enough. If you can’t be bothered then what’s the point anymore I guess.
4 Anfield goals and THAT Barca goal will rank up high in my Arshavin all time moments. All the best to him if that’s what’s best for him.
Just watched the Anfield goals again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRoS_YhsL68
Where did all that confidence and drive go?
It looks like he ate it…
Thanks for reminding me of “that” Liverpool game.. what a night!
My wife was trying enthusiastically to get pretend she actually has a clue about football and came out with the line “why don’t they just pass it to that little bloke, you know, Sir Scores-a-lot”.
Arshavin is now forever known as this in my house, and I have edited his name on PES to say so.
And increased the plumpness of his belly.
your comment is brilliant
You play Pro EVO?!
Historically I have always been a PES man, right back to the ISS days, but moved to FIFA at number ten.
Recently went back to PES though, cos the new version of FIFA barely works online.
It’s a superb game when it works, but the amount of times it gets stuck connecting, or fails to connect at all, or refuses to acknowledge my license etc really really winds me up!
I’m with you sir. I fucking love pro evolution soccer. The graphics might be a tad messed up where the arsenal kit looks nothing like it’s supposed to but I still enjoy it, goddamn!
He was devastated when Russia didn’t qualify for WC 2010. That’s when he lost his appetite for football and he was in declining form ever since. Never recovered at all. A big shame for a guy with massive talent such as his. Thanks for the Anfield and Barca goals. Will always be remembered in my life.
Martin Tyler screaming his name will always be one of my most cherished sporting moments. Thanks for the fun while it lasted, you adorable little scamp.
Arshy just makes me sad. I still wonder if things might have been different if he were given time as the #10. But, we did have Cesc then…
I still have an Arshavin t shirt I bought in the golden afterglow of Arse 2-1 Barca. I can still wear it here in the states, as no one has any idea who he is.
If this is true, then its a terrible shame. What a waste of such an incredible talent. We’ve all seen, and shook our heads on plenty of occasions how in the space of a year or so, he went from a player that would set fans hearts beating faster just knowing that a bit of magic could be just around the corner, into a player who fans just groaned and even booed on a certain occasion when he came on. Whatever the reasons are, whether he was unhappy about playing in an unfavoured position, or homesick in England, or just… Read more »
I’m a big fan of the Russian, a player who always had us on the edge of our seats. I kinda miss this. But I don’t think it was homesickness. He could have returned to Russia, surely had the opportunity a couple of times. Unfortunately, he chose to sit on his contract and stay in London, and this decision came in favour of football. If he really wanted to prove his critics right and save his football career I really think he could have gone somewhere else where he would be properly used. If he was played in the hole… Read more »
Oops I meant prove his critics *wrong* and his decision came *ahead* of football.
And I shouldn’t be drinking on a Tuesday afternoon…
what a waste of talent and its all down to his own laziness. no sympathy for him. could of been a really special player for us. it would be foolish of him to retire but most decisions he makes about his career don’t seem to be sensible so thankyou andrey and good bye.
Well he’s already managed to give up playing, laze around and let himself go to fat.
Presumably the only way we’ll know that he’s formally retired will be when he crops up talking complete bollocks on the Russian version of MotD.
Arshavin forever remembered…..in my mind….for wasting his talent.
I love Arsha. I really do, I think he deserved to play more this season. ESPECIALLY when you look at his performance against Reading in the CC, he was one of the reasons we won that game. And the very next game against Bradford, Wenger chose to start Gervinho and Ramsey but not him.
Anyways, I hope this news isn’t true and he continues playing. I love the little russian, love his funny character, I hope he finds regular football somewhere to lose the excess fat.
Good luck Andrey, it was good while it lasted. :’)
Such a shame. I’m still angry that he didn’t get more opportunities in the past couple of years. Oh we’ll, he is a smart guy, has plenty of money in the bank too. He wants to stay in London as well. I hope we give him some role at the club in the future. Thanks for the memories Andrei
I dont think Arsha have been happy playing football for the past couple of years.
I remember a question he answered.
Some guys asking if he had some advice, since the guy wanted to become a pro footballer.
Answer: choose a different career.
Arshavin to retire – how are we to tell the difference?
He’ll get fat.
More than usual I mean.
It’s a real shame. He had all the talent and showed how good he was in his first season, then just stopped. It’s a little sad really
I dont want to see him retire. I really want to see him in some premier league side so i can watch him play more without the burden of him getting back to help us out more defensively which shouldnt matter if he plays for another team.
I just thought he could have been used as a central strikers in these last two years (a job which he complained about but did very well) like di natale.
Admired his talent, was a great signing for us but ultimately disappointed. Arseblog News summed it up precisely ‘sigh’!
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/564378_593011394056679_1505683928_a.jpg
Either of Higuain or Lewandowski should be signed for this club. I mean ffs, it’s there for everyone to see, Arsenal needs a top notch CF.
Come on Arsene.
The situation with Arshavin is indicative of the general malaise that has permeated the club under these last few years under Wenger. Here was an exceptionally talented player who at the end of the day gave up caring about his career. Why? Just like Bendtner, Vela, Denilson, Chamakh and many others he has appeared to have gone stale and deteriorated – while, of course, picking up a nice weekly wage courtesy of The Mad Professor. Would Sir Alex Ferguson have allowed this Russian to pick up 90k a week for doing nothing? No chance. He would have been sent packing… Read more »
I think the problem was that Arshavin’s shorts got too small.
I think it was an English language problem.
I expect that when he first turned up, he saw that someone had said he was the bollocks. Having got someone to explain that actually that’s good, he then assumed that to improve he needed to be a huge load of bollocks.
LMFAO, have you seen how many rubbish players SAF has signed and paid huge wages to over the years? ALL big clubs have their share of crap players on huge wages. MCFC had an entire team of wasters they could have fielded at one point.
No footballer should be paid 90k a week and not play for some club. Top wage for any footballer should be 5k a week . No play no pay, simple. If they get injured then they can get 1k a week. Enough of the ridiculous salaries.
“in no way shape or from has he been better than any of the summer additions. […] i’d rather play Asharvin.”
Random comment on some random site o_O
I’d love to see him in the A-League. Join Del Pierro and Heskey!
I have 2 Arsenal kits.
1. Andrey Arshavin
2. Emmanuel Frimpong
They will be legendary 20 years from now. I can see myself. Old dude at a pub wearing the Arshavin kit. someone says to me “Hey, was Arshavin that chubby little Russian who was a massive train-wreck at Arsenal.
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For me football is about moments. Arshavin provided 3 of note
1) the 4th goal at Anfield
2) the winner vs Barcelona
3) Telling a fat person to not eat so much on his blog
This is enough for me…
Finacially we probablly break close to even as without his signing we would have missed out on the CL and who knows what might have happened after, the type of problems that Liverpool are currently going through spring to mind.
What leaves a bitter taste is that he is soooo talented and has wasted it.
“Complications in his private life ….”
What’s the story behind this?
Some say he was influenced by John Terry and hooked up with some glamour model. Rumours really.
Well, he’s gone one way or the other at the end of the season, and it’s a shame he won’t be missed.
Thanks for this, Andrei http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/03mW2hmaCl4SS/610x.jpg (speaking of wasted talent, who’s that other bloke in the pic…)
On the blog today Blogs said: “We paid a big transfer fee and big wages, and we got nothing close to value for money.” That’s what worries me now, that Wenger will take a once bitten twice shy attitude and not take gambles with big money signings in future…..
I remember describing Arshavin about a year ago with just one word – Apathetic. But I was thumbed down.
[…] was an interesting story in the Evening Standard yesterday suggesting that Andrei Arshavin was considering retirement at the end of the season. This morning […]
I he was played in his preferred central position hed have relished it. He was never really a winger and had to relearn a new position. once prem league players figured him out his lack of wing play attributes were exposed. Wenger does this too often with the likes of ramsey on the wing.
I think the defining moment of his Arsenal career was the 4-goal game at Anfield.’ If 4 goals don’t give a win, why put in the effort?’ he must’ve thought.
Fuck him. Lazy git. Taking thousands out of our club and giving back fuck all. Yet treated like a hero.
Is he treated like a hero? Held on people’s shoulders, exalted from the roof tops, ticker tape parades?
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If you define hero in those narrow terms then the answer is clearly no.
Wenger destroyed arshavin..end of. He would have had the same impact rosicky has if played centrally. Wenger has lost it….he needs to piss off to france….