Arsenal winger Andrei Arshavin has been linked with a transfer to English Premier league side Fulham, Arseblog news reported early Sunday morning.
There has been talk the past few weeks about Arsenal being interesed in Fulhams American International Clint Dempsey. Could a deal for the goalscorer be in the works?
Arshavin failed to make an impression with the Gunners this season, scoring just one league goal in 19 league appearances through mid-February.
He was loaned out to former employers Zenit St. Petersburg at the end of that month, and enjoyed more consistent first-team football with the team he’d led to the then-UEFA Cup in 2008.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger justified the move by saying Arshavin “simply needed to play.”
And play he did. Arshavin’s three goals for Zenit helped the club win the Russian Premier League title last weekend.
It was the sort of blossoming form that might make him an attractive commodity on the transfer market should Arsenal look to sell their diminutive attacking maestro this summer.
Out of contract in 2013, Arshavin will probably see more speculation about his potential move to other clubs. The link to Fulham seems to be just the first in what will likely be a long line of them.
Arshavin’s family stayed in London during his loan move in St. Petersburg, and Arshavin has said he will return back to the English capital following next month’s European Championships, which he will contest as Russia’s captain, to decide his future.
It is no stretch to say that Arshavin has failed to live up to the considerable heights he hit upon first arriving at Arsenal from Zenit in 2009.
The four-goal masterpiece at Anfield aside, Arshavin displayed an innate skill in the attacking third as well as a ruthless finishing quality that had appeared to have left Arsenal with Thierry Henry’s transfer in 2007.
We haven’t seen that same player for years now. Will Wenger take a flier on him in 2012-13, knowing that Arshavin, now in his 30s, will likely leave on a free transfer following the season?
Only time, and the glut of attacking players within the side, influence that decision.
The Fulham link does tell us that Arshavin is still an enticing commodity, even in the Premier League.
A change of scenery might do him some good at this stage. The switch to Zenit certainly did.
