Arsenal: Oh Andrey! You could've had it all

Andrey Arshavin

It’s been a slow week for Arsenal, with 95% of our press coverage about weddings, PSG, and tedious transfers. It’s what comes with silly season. You just have to deal with the inevitable summer fever. I woke up one day in early June to read the headlines, nothing out of the ordinary. A ridiculous bid here, footballer caught out with an alcohol level higher than his phone number there, the usual. What I didn’t expect (read: want to see) was the news about the departure of our very own mercurial meerkat.

I don’t want to sit here and moan about everything the club did to screw him over. Conversely, I don’t want to lay the blame solely on Andrey’s shoulders. There will always be conversations we’ll never read about, perspectives we’ll never think about, and sob stories we’ll never care about. What I want to talk acknowledge is what Andrey means to this club, and that I wish things went differently for him.

When we signed him, the club were on the map again. Regarded as one of the rising talents of the world after a sensational Euro 2004, he was the spark in an otherwise boring Russian midfield. Arsène Wenger saw him, waved his magic wand, and boom, he was ours… eventually.

Arshavin became our record transfer (still is, depending on who you believe), and things were looking up for the Gunners. He helped us scrape back fourth spot, once again qualify for the Champions League, and the large stipend we so dearly depended on. In the beginning, he was a god, and that god was good. He lit up the pitch. He was truly a marvel to behold, his gimpy stature hilariously juxtaposed with a certain elegance and unpredictability on the ball that no Arsenal player has properly replicated since. For a long time he was probably the first or second name on the team sheet. He played striker, wide left, anywhere he could create. Andrey was a man with a plan, but for some reason he started slipping.

I’ll fast forward to the Andrey we know now; someone much smaller, lost, and more insignificant than ever before.

Old Arsène knew what he was getting into when he signed Arshavin; an unapologetic, high risk player. He should never be the player to bring on when you’re holding a one goal lead (although he did just that against Manchester United when Aaron Ramsey scored the winner). He’ll rarely play a safe ball when there’s a splitting pass to play. He’ll never think of tracking back before looking around to see who can bail him out. When he was at his best, he could get away with the laziness, the odd sloppy mistake, and the general attitude of a rockstar. That all changed at some point, and I can’t say I’m able to pinpoint exactly where.

Some say he got fed up with playing down the middle, some say he was thrown off kilter by Russia’s untimely dismissal from the 2010 World Cup qualifying stages. There are many more radical, much dumber theories, but I’m going to stick to the one that makes sense to me, not to mention the one in print. He played poorly for his country, it happens. Immediately he was implicated in misconduct, reports having falsely accused him of being drunk before the match. He rubbished those claims, but the blame just kept on pouring in.

He told Daily Mail: “‘Usually there is something that triggers the rumours – something small and trivial that gets blown out of proportion – but in this case there was nothing at all and could never have been. In the national team, nobody can drink, let alone get drunk before the games. Nobody. And if it had happened, that would have been the last day you saw that guy in the team.”

Arshavin leaves Arsenal for Zenit St. Petersburg anonymously

As fellow blogger BlackburnGeorge pointed out in his article, maybe Robin van Persie’s hissy fits with players affected him profoundly, as they are rumoured to have tweaked Aaron Ramsey. Maybe Andrey didn’t feel the need to submit to Robin, that lanky faux-Alpha we all adored. If that’s close to the truth, and I believe there’s a good chance it is, my respect for him only grows.

I did not grow up on the terraces of Highbury, cheering Arsenal in postcard fashion. I did not watch Liam Brady, Cliff Bastin, or Ted Drake carve the opposition to mere fragments under the floodlights of a-once hallowed ground. I didn’t watch the Invincibles ravage the Premier League on my tube set with any regularity, let alone in the flesh. While I am still firmly the “newbie” among older Gooners, what I can say is, despite seeing legends come and go (admittedly at the tail end of their respective reigns) I am also humbled that I had the privilege to watch Andrei Arshavin in his shortlived, yet explosive pomp. He was so frustrating sometimes, but those flashes of brilliance made it worth the heartache every time he misplaced a pass and couldn’t be bothered to track back. He was a laugh (despite his own down spirits you’d imagine) and in a profession as cut-throat as football, you have to admire that. He may have spoken poorly of the club recently, he may be lazy, he may not have been the long term star we yearned for, but he knew was he special.

In a way, his leaving sets us up for a new star man. We tried with Andrey, and we ultimately failed. His departure allows us to recoup wage money and hunt for another big name. We’ll shatter our transfer record, and wipe the slate clean. It may not be the ideal way to go out, but to me, it shows the club has made the transition from punting on a talented player, to investing in a star for now. You all know who I’m talking about. Still, not seeing him in Arsenal colours will take some getting used to, and I’m sure I won’t be happy with whoever takes the number 23. Call me sentimental, but the little things matter.

The worst part about Andrey’s time here is he’ll only be criticized more strongly in the future, as his contributions to the club will inevitably seem smaller the more time passes. It’s already happening to me. I can’t remember the last time he played for us without looking it up. Maybe it was against Reading.

In a strange way, I’ll miss him more than the stars that shone brighter, and longer. Legends like Vieira, Henry and Bergkamp all left wonderful memories, legacies and throbbing hearts behind them.

Andrey leaves little more than a few well placed finished against Barca and Liverpool. They always say it’s mistakes that you learn from the most.