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Arshavin speaks his mind: Outspoken Arsenal star on 'scary'
Wenger, the United 'machines' and 'boring' Chelsea
By Martin Samuel
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Lip service: Andrey Arshavin celebrates at
Liverpool
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What we are dealing with here is a clash of cultures. Andrey
Arshavin has just been given an opportunity to retract, or at least clarify,
some pretty incendiary views on women drivers and has chosen instead to
stand by every word and add a few more.
Katya, our charming interpreter, who has translated all this without a
blink of her blue eyes, then attempts to place the man, and his opinions,
in context.
'Russia can be a very chauvinistic society,' she says. 'There is a saying:
"A chicken is not a bird, and a woman is not a person".' Noticing
my look of horror, she quickly adds: 'No, no, we do not mind. If you said
that to a Russian woman, she would laugh.'
And Arshavin is unreconstructed Russian in as much as he speaks his mind.
Ask about the future of Arsenal, the best footballer in the world or his
hopes for the Champions League final and a straight answer is returned.
He speaks some English, understands more, replies through Katya only when
a question requires explanation and arrives bearing the look of a man
who has just had someone reverse into his car. Probably a woman. Initial
exchanges are not promising.
A gentle question about how he is finding life in the Premier League.
'To start with, it was extremely difficult, because the game was very
fast compared to the Russian style. I had to think on my feet, think a
lot quicker, but as the time goes by I find it easier, increasingly.'
An observation that Russian players have often struggled here, which is
one of the reasons his four goals against Liverpool at Anfield caused
such a stir. Reply in Russian, deadpan face with a hint of didn't you-
poison-my-cat about it.
'I believe my technical level is good enough to play here.'
Later, Arshavin says his mood changes with results, which is true of many
footballers, but would explain certain contradictions in his character.
He clearly knows he is good, but is also aware that at Arsenal this season
results have not always backed up grandiose claims. So when he talks about
his talent, he says he realised at the age of seven on his first day at
the Smena youth academy, run by Zenit St Petersburg, that he was special.
In the next breath, he agonises that he would not get into the current
Barcelona team and, misunderstanding a question about Lionel Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo, places himself at the outer reaches of the top 100
players in the world. It could be false modesty.
Arshavin is plainly a devastating footballer, but he needs to drag this
Arsenal team with him if he is to realise his ambitions in the Premier
League.
Today, Arsenal play the supporting role in what is expected to be Manchester
United's coronation. Even if they spoil the celebrations at Old Trafford
with a victory, it will only underline Arsenal's potential, a most frustrating
commodity when allied to inconsistency.
'I am not very excited about playing in a game in which another team will
be crowned champions,' said Arshavin said.
But it will be difficult to win and stop that happening.
There is a lot of potential here, but it is more important to show we
are contenders next season, rather than we just have potential to win
one game.
'We must buy in the summer. Not more potential, but players who are ready
to do it now, players like me. We need two or three. If Arsenal want to
win, they have to do it. We are tired of waiting.
'I believe that out of the top four English teams, when it comes to football,
Arsenal are the best. They have the best style and the best coach. At
the moment, young players come to Arsenal because they see it as a very
big team, but if we carry on like this without winning trophies, young
players will not want to come. Everyone likes the appeal of Arsenal, the
football of Arsenal, the young players of Arsenal, but if there is no
result they will stop.
'Arsenal have not achieved good results in the last few years, but that
is easily explained because the team is so young. I believe we are now
at a point where it will begin to work for us and enable the team to start
scoring and move on as Manchester United did.
'A few years ago, they had young players like Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo,
who were very promising, but they did not win the league and achieve the
right results. Now they are older, they cannot stop winning. Arsenal have
been recruiting players for two years, so I do not predict results a long
way in the future: I predict them for next season, if we can add some
others to our team.'
Arshavin's roots are in St Petersburg, a city he loves and misses greatly.
He grew up in a Soviet-style communal flat, three families with one room
each but a shared bathroom and kitchen. It has been painted as a life
of grinding poverty, sleeping on floors, but Arshavin says he was comfortable.
'I knew nothing else.'
His life improved when he became a full-time player at Zenit (making his
debut at Valley Parade, of all places, against Bradford City in the Intertoto
Cup) and began receiving his wages in hard cash. His love of his homeland
is pervasive but, since the age of 11, the spirit of his football has
been housed at the Nou Camp, Barcelona.
He fell in love with the Catalan club after watching them win the European
Cup final against Sampdoria in 1992 and only Zenit St Petersburg's insistence
on a transfer fee above 15million euros prevented him achieving a lifelong
dream by signing for them last season.
Arsenal came up with the money in January and, for Arshavin, an ambition
to play attacking, creative football makes them, for want of a better
phrase, Barcelona Lite.
'Arsene Wenger wanting me was a big factor,' added Arshavin. 'When I first
saw him, I was a bit scared, like he was a person from a different planet.
I would never in my wildest dreams have thought I would be talking to
him, let alone playing for his team. I never thought I was good enough,
but we shall see. The Liverpool game was the best of my life, but I do
not want to be a one-game player. Anyone can have a good game.
'I did have an offer from Barcelona but Zenit were not happy. I try not
to think about what could have happened and at least at Arsenal I am playing.
At Barcelona I think I would be sitting on the bench, like Aleksandr Hleb.
'Which player could I replace? Thierry Henry? No, he is too good and I
think Messi will be the World Player of the Year. If I could vote it would
be for Messi. Even if you just count the goals and the beautiful passes
and look at it statistically, Messi would win over Ronaldo. It has been
close but Messi has been better. So where would I play at Barcelona?
'Last season, once I knew I was leaving St Petersburg, the choice was
always England or Spain, never Italy. I think the English league right
now is the best league there has ever been, whereas in Italy it is very
defensive, very closed football. I do not like it. I enjoy the honesty
of English football, because nobody gives up, and almost all the best
players are here. Italian football is at the bottom because of all those
scandals. Their league is not very interesting.
'I love Barcelona for the same reasons I love Arsenal. It is as if they
do not even think of the result, they just want to play and score and
if they lose, OK, then they will go out and do it again and win next time.
At Arsenal, all we think about is how to attack, how to score, how to
dribble, how to make a pass. We do not think so much about defence. Probably,
for results, this is no good: but I like it.
'That is why I hope Barcelona beat Manchester United in the Champions
League final. United look very solid but they play like machines, whereas
Barcelona are dreamers, they are more creative. Sometimes United kill
everything and I like Barcelona's football more.
'Think of Chelsea. If you watch how Chelsea play, they can kill any team,
not by fighting, but with the way the midfield play. Frank Lampard, John
Mikel Obi, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack, they will destroy you, they
will damage you with their power.
Chelsea have a good team but it is not football with emotion: one goal
and then (blows raspberry, folds arms) boring again. Always. I like teams
that are more open. I like style.'
Now this might sound a bit rich from a player whose team has just lost
4-1 to Chelsea at home, but Katya identified the Russian characteristic
as opinionated - she did not mention logical - and perhaps Arshavin was
referring more to the 1-1 draw with his beloved Barcelona at Stamford
Bridge, rather than the debacle at the Emirates Stadium that followed.
Then again, even on the back of two defeats at home to major rivals, the
consensus is that Arshavin's assessment is correct and Arsenal are two
or three players away from being a serious force. Even in a season in
which the club is perceived to have fallen further behind, Arsenal have
won league games away at Chelsea, at home to Manchester United and drawn
twice with Liverpool, including Arshavin's famous four at Anfield.
'I believe my talent, my technique, is God-given and all I do is keep
it going, rather than bury it in the ground,' concludes Arshavin. 'It
is a natural talent. I knew I had it from the first day of training at
the age of seven, because I found football easy.
'I played, we got a good result. If I wanted to go through some defenders,
then no problem. I didn't have to think about it, I just did what I wanted.
The day I started at the academy all the coaches could see I was different.'
And then that flicker of self-doubt returns. 'I used to watch my father
Sergey. He played for various teams in the town, factory teams, random
teams, there was no professional football in the Soviet Union. The people
there still say he was better than me.'
This time, though, he has a broad grin. He should try it more often. Perhaps
next season he will get the opportunity.
And as for women drivers...
Andrey Arshavin isn't short of an opinion or two, whether it be on football,
politics or women drivers! The striker, who came close to standing in
local elections back home in Russia, could be forgiven for being wary
of all drivers after surviving being knocked down as a child. The driver
of that car was a man, but that hasn't stopped Arshavin from telling the
Russian press: 'If I had it in my power to introduce a ban on women driving
cars and to withdraw all their licences I would do it without thinking
twice.' So far, long-term girlfriend Yulia has kept mum on the subject
but, with the suspicion his comments may have been lost in translation,
MARTIN SAMUEL offered Arshavin the opportunity to put the record straight.
This is what he had to say:
'I would never give driving lessons to women. We need to build new roads
for them. Why? Because you never know what to expect from a woman on the
road. If you see a car behaving weirdly, swerving and doing strange things,
before you see the driver you know it is a woman. It is always a woman.'
Dailymail.co.uk,
16th May 2009
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