The Goon Blog

Its all over guys. Its official, we have one of the worlds best players:

“Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that Russian international midfielder, Andrey Arshavin has joined the Gunners from Zenit St. Petersburg on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.”

Arshavin has said,

“Thank You, I’m Happy To Be In Arsenal.. It’s My Dream”

And in a plea to Arsenal fans;

“My Message To Arsenal Fans? Trust In Me, Trust In Arsenal”

We will Andrey, it takes seeing him in that picture to believe. Arsenal have not made a signing of this magnitude since Dennis Bergkamp, a fraction of his success at the club would be appreciated by Arsenal fans at the moment.

A fantastic deal for Arsenal, by god we sailed close to the wind but finally we have our man, he will get a great reception for sure when he walks out onto the pitch.

More sure to come soon.

1443: Confusion reigns at the moment with Sport.RU claiming the deal is in doubt after talking to the FA.

“Yes, it’s true, the transfer is in doubt. There is a chance it will take us 2-3 days. The odds are 50/50. If the transfer is declared invalid, Arshavin will be returned to Zenit. We can’t rule this out. I don’t think that would be a severe ruling: both clubs had a lot of time to complete it during the window.”

Not sure on its reliability and MY gut feelings are that they are duff quotes.

Lets wait and see.

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1518 - SSN went live to the Emirates, there are 40 pages of the document to go through, explaining the long, long delay. Hopefully this is the only reason.

Fingers crossed.

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1618: THE QUOTES ARE FAKE. source. Thanks Gunnerblog my suspicions were confirmed.

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Arsenal are selling ‘Arshavin 23#’ shirts, as seen on SSN. Announcement rumoured for 7:30.

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I have it on good authority that Andrei Arshavin is now an Arsenal player. It will be announced around 10 am but there seems to be a little confusion over the fee now. I still believe it is 12 million plus performance related add ons.

Keep an eye out here and here

He is our player, don’t worry!

Back Later.

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1245 – There are rumours circling that Andrei will be unveiled along with STEVEN APPIAH at 3pm taking place at London Colney.

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1443: Confusion reigns at the moment with Sport.RU claiming the deal is in doubt after talking to the FA.

“Yes, it’s true, the transfer is in doubt. There is a chance it will take us 2-3 days. The odds are 50/50. If the transfer is declared invalid, Arshavin will be returned to Zenit. We can’t rule this out. I don’t think that would be a severe ruling: both clubs had a lot of time to complete it during the window.”

Not sure on its reliablity and MY gut feelings are that they are duff quotes.

Lets wait and see.

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Any further news will follow here.

Well for some reason, the post i took fourty minutes to write has fucking disappeared! I really cant write it out all again so i will put it in bullet point form.

• For the summary visit here, i did a ticker with all the latest developments on here.
• Basically the whole ‘Arshavin going home’ thing was a trick by Dennis Lachter to get rid of the media for a short time. Hence the 200% deal off texts.
• The FA will let the deal through as all the paperwork was submitted by 4:30. The FA have confirmed this and my source has.
• Andrei is pretty much an Arsenal player, the negotiations that went on until about 8:30 were regarding Arshavin’s personal payment to Zenit regarding his signing on fee at his last contract signing, they wanted 50% back.
• He will earn 70K a week with us
• Signed a three and a half year deal so im told

That is it in brief. I am very sorry for that last post to have disappeared, im actually fuming.

I will try and get the news up here when it breaks, it will go through, id put a lot of money on it. Lachter has just text someone saying;

‘Arshavin is a gooner’

Says it all.

I hope i have some 30ft snowdrift against my door in the morning, i really want to sleep for about 24 hours, ive been up about 20 hours.

My bet is that it will start raining and all this snow will turn to that ghastly black mooshy shitty stuff that gets your shoes, socks, feet, trousers and just about anything wet and all horrible.

Yes, that would be rather shit…

Id just like to thank all the people that made today so good on the blog, there were tens of thousands of visits and thankyou to each and every one of you. I hope you become regular readers.

Until the update – for the last time maybe – Arshfans

Live SSN – Where announcement will be made along with arsenal.com
Watch live video from English TV on Justin.tv

16:30

Andrei Arshavin is now an Arsenal player according to a source of mine.

More coming soon.

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LATEST 1854pm

Wenger said a positive announcement will be made later and the deal WILL go through. Arshavin seems ours!

From SSN, Watch it for free on the link above.

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Welcome to the more updated live transfer ticker as we follow the Arshavin saga. Its been an on and off day.

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00:37 - Just the story here from sky sports about him arriving on a private jet. Be back soon, having a snooze!

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06:50 – Nothing new, Zenit have just confirmed that Arshavin has flown here. Il bring you more when its here.

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9:50 - Sorry cant access account. AA Has been spotted in NL courtesy of GoonerTalk

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11:05 – Sorry guys, Arshavin is going home and the deal is off.

Bad, bad times for the club

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12:27 - It has emerged that Andrei Arshavin IS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY. He is, accoring to this source, at Highbury house of which houses the directors box. Is there hope? Its all emerged from a source in the AST

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12:33 – BBC Radio 5 live insist the deal is still on. He is still in London but there has been no agreement.

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13:00 – Negotiations are still ongoing. Motrofanov has spoken to radio Zenit and said “Negotiations are still ongoing, to a greater extent on the level of the board of directors of Arsenal,” More on Setanta site. Also said “It is our belief that the chances Arsenal will come to an agreement on the purchase of Arshavin is very high.”

COME ONNNN!

Tune into Talksport, they have a Zenit source on in a minute.

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13:56 – Listen to the interview with a Zenit source here. Download it onto your computer.

The source thinks a deal will go through because Arshavin’s position at Zenit is untenable.

More to come…

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14:24 -Transfer window extended on a ‘case by case basis’. That would almost certainly not apply to us. Our deadline will still be 5pm.

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14:25 – Russian press are reporting Andrei has signed. Its reliability is unknown.

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14:34 - “Man City are expected to swoop for Van Persie in next hour. Bid reported to be around £42 million” According to Setanta. Probably just rumours.

14:37 -  Philippe Auclair has said that all Arshavin stories on Arsenal.com have been removed apart from the article with Wenger saying we need no quick solution. I have just checked and they are still there. here, here just for starters. More news when it appears.

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14:48 - The deal is expected to be completed by 17:00 according to talkSPORT radio. Lets hope so. We have to get someone, after last time we really, really have too and Arshavin is our only option by the looks of thinks.

I’m just going to take everything said with a pinch of salt.

Come on Arsenal.

On the West Ham game Wenger has said “They didn’t attack, that explains why we always have the same problem.”. Well lets get Arshavin to help solve it then. Arsenal.com are coming up with the usual propaganda using Wenger’s supporting quotes for his current squad.

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15:10 - GoonerChris tells me that ‘payment for Arshavin is done’. Great news, the deal seems very close indeed.

Its hotting up. Sorry if i gave you a fright about the Van Persie rumour! I can assure you it will not happen.

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15:20 - Another Sky Sports Believes story on SSN, they say Arshavin will end up at the Emirates

Hotting up…

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15:31 – Sky, who’s source is Dennis Lachter according to GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog, have slashed odds on Arshavin becoming an Arsenal player. All good news and good signs here guys.

Within the hour i think we could have the Owl.

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1539 – “There’s nothing new I can tell you” The words of Dennis Lachter to BBC Football.

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1558 – Loving this suggesion from gunnermaniac

‘Come on just sign up for goodness sake. I can’t take it any longer. Has the ice frozen up all the pens?’

Thanks for that!

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16:05 - Arshavin will wear number 13 according to Sky Sports News, conformation of the agreed fee i believe to be 15 mil. Deal yet to be 100% completed. Time is elapsing. We must be at least 30-40 minutes minimum behind proceedings though.

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16:12 – Arshavin has completed a full medical i am reliably informed. Deal should be out within the next 40 minutes.

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16:20 – No news, all gone rather quiet. Keane will end up at WHL for 15 mil. Crazy.

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16:24 – Reliable source tells me Andrei Arshavin is an Arsenal player and it will be confirmed soon . The FA have the paperwork.

YES!

1640 – My source got news from Richard Law, Arsenals International Executive. HE is known for the link up man between Arsenal and Salamanca.

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1740 -

There is a suspicion that Zenit did not send the final document because Andrei didn’t pay them. Its unconfirmed and im shitting it.

I really really hope we have got him. As soon as i get news il bring it

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1810 - Advocaat comments to Sky Sports News:

“Arsenal don’t know how lucky they are. Andrei’s worth more than Arsenal paid for him. He’ll be a sensation in England.”

hmmmm… just as it has been for the past month, nobody has an effing clue.

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18:27

Latest from sovsport
The clubs have a mutual desire to complete the transaction,” Mitrofanov told Sovetsky Sport at 5.40pm. “Negotiations are continuing.”

Was not long ago.

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LATEST 1854pm

WEnger said a positive announcement will be made later and the deal WILL go through. Arshavin seems ours!

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00:37 – Just the story here from sky sports about him arriving on a private jet. Be back soon, having a snooze!

…….

06:50 – Nothing new, Zenit have just confirmed that Arshavin has flown here. Il bring you more when its here.

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9:50 - Sorry cant access account. AA Has been spotted in NL courtesy of GoonerTalk

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11:05 – Sorry guys, Arshavin is going home and the deal is off.

Bad, bad times for the club

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12:27 – It has emerged that Andrei Arshavin IS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY. He is, accoring to this source, at Highbury house of which houses the directors box. Is there hope? Its all emerged from a source in the AST

……

12:33 – BBC Radio 5 live insist the deal is still on. He is still in London but there has been no agreement.

……

13:00 – Negotiations are still ongoing. Motrofanov has spoken to radio Zenit and said “Negotiations are still ongoing, to a greater extent on the level of the board of directors of Arsenal,” More on Setanta site. Also said “It is our belief that the chances Arsenal will come to an agreement on the purchase of Arshavin is very high.”

COME ONNNN!

Tune into Talksport, they have a Zenit source on in a minute.

……

13:56 – Listen to the interview with a Zenit source here. Download it onto your computer.

The source thinks a deal will go through because Arshavin’s position at Zenit is untenable.

More to come…

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14:24 -Transfer window extended on a ‘case by case basis’. That would almost certainly not apply to us. Our deadline will still be 5pm.

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