Arshavin negotiations on a dead point

Over the last days the transfer of Zenit Saint Petersburg forward and Russian international Andrei Arshavin (27) has become increasingly complicated due to the fee demands of his team. Barcelona seems to have left the race at this point.

On Sunday, Zenit published a statement on its official website saying that Barcelona was the only club that has made an offer: "FC Zenit officially informs, that, as of this moment, there are no negotiations about Andrey Arshavin's transfer to any club. The only request about possibility of forward's transfer was the offer from Spanish Barcelona FC. Information in mass media about Zenit's negotiations with Chelsea FC is not corresponding to the truth. "

One day later, a new statement - that was only published on the Russian version of the site of the Russian club - said that Barcelona was not willing to improve its initial bid of 15 million euro° what has caused the end the negotiations.

Zenit head of administrative and legal affairs Pavel Pivovarov told British television station Sky Sports on Monday that Barca's initial offer was not enough to secure Arshavin's services: "We have received only one firm offer - from FC Barcelona - but now we need to negotiate the transfer sum. Nothing is decided. It's about him, it's about the club, whether we will be satisfied with the offer. Now, we are not." Pivovarov later added to journalists: "If Barcelona would double their first offer, we would consider selling."

In an interview with Russian sports paper Sport-Express a few days ago, Arshavin seemed to accept the postion of his club: "I perfectly understand the position of Zenit: the offered transfer fee is really too low. It seems that with Barcelona pulling back, one of my options for next season has failed.

I nevertheless still want to leave Zenit and play in a stronger league. It's strange how things are going cause it seems that my good performance at the Euro is turning out bad for me since that made the price get higher. There's some time left, so maybe it will be fulfilled later on, but for now the dream stays a dream."

Last Friday, Zenit manager Dick Advocaat had announced that Arshavin wouldn't play anymore for his team until his future had been resolved. Arshavin nevertheless already started a Russian league match yesterday.

Asked about a last update, Arshavin's presumed agent Dennis Lachter says today in an interview with British tabloid The Daily Express that Zenit is asking 30 million euro° for the attacker: "Barcelona failed with a 15 million euro° bid for Andrei and now an English club have had a 25 million euro° offer rejected by Zenit. Zenit wants 30 million euro°, so clubs who want to sign Andrei will have to get closer to that figure.

And I believe they will because there are clubs interested in Andrei who are trying to sell other players first. The figure is not easy to reach, but the transfer activity is beginning to happen and I am still optimistic he will join a big club. I don’t know exactly when Andrei’s future will be resolved, but we have until the end of August, so we are both fairly relaxed."

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