Tottenham Hotspur Reportedly Considering Arshavin

Combined Reports

Published: July 25, 2008 (Issue # 1393)

As Zenit St. Petersburg was saying it hadn’t received a satisfactory offer for midfielder Andrei Arshavin and that he would probably remain with the club, English club Tottenham Hotspur was reported to be weighing up bids for both Arshavin and fellow Russia international Roman Pavlyuchenko.

In a brief statement posted on Zenit’s web site Monday, team general director Maxim Mitrofanov said that although Zenit’s contract with Arshavin, 27, remains in force “we offered the player the possibility of joining the summer transfer campaign.”

Arshavin was to have determined by July 1, later extended to July 15, which team he would go to — if the terms were satisfactory to Zenit. But “as of today, July 21, there have been no proposals that would be of interest to the player and the club,” Mitrofanov said.

Barcelona had offered $24 million, but broke off talks two weeks ago after refusing to raise its offer. The statement did not specify which other clubs had made offers.

On Tuesday, London’s Independent newspaper reported that Tottenham, facing the prospect of losing their three first-choice strikers over the next two weeks, is considering bids for Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko.

Tottenham is reported to remain interested in Arshavin but to regard Zenit’s asking price to be too high.

“With Tottenham we have contacts,” Zenit sporting director Konstantin Sarsaniya was quoted as saying by the Independent. “[Tottenhham] is really interested in acquiring Andrei but, as I understand, 27 million euros [$42.5 million] is too high a price for them. Tottenham is ready to pay in the region of 20 million euros [$31 million].”

The London club expressed interest in Pavlyuchenko earlier this summer, with his club of Spartak Moscow claiming that it received an offer of around $20 million (12.7 million euros) — considerably less than it hopes to get for Russia’s other standout player at Euro 2008.

(AP, SPT)