Sport Cafe

by Jon West

Filed under: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Sunderland, Euro 2012, Champions League, Premier League, Football, Transfer News

You can rely on the international break for a foreign footballer to say something interesting and most of these revelations, once they have been translated for speedy repackaging to the UK, are usually either eyebrow-raisingly indiscreet or entertainingly self-deluded. A few years ago, your average international import might, on being quizzed by a few friendly journalists on his his return to his homeland, might complain about his club manager not giving him enough respect/playing time (delete where applicable) of hint that the people of England/Scotland/Wales, including almost all of his team-mates and every female in a 50-mile radius, drinks more than he had previously imagined humanly possible. That would be more often than not followed by a hasty denial on his return to the British Isles, claiming his actual words had been 'lost in translation' at some point on the journey. Tweeter Facebook FourSquare iPhone Now, it seems, you get a better quality of international break musings. Or at least you do with Andrei Arshavin of Russia and Arsenal, who will be hoping to help his nation move closer to Euro 2012 qualification at the Republic of Ireland's expense before resuming bench-warming duties at the Emirates Stadium. Where, he has revealed, he has been engaging in insightful conversations on the Gunners' prospects with fellow under-performer Nicklas Bendtner. In which he claimed that losing Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri was "catastrophic" as neither could be replaced. Which will be sure to go down well with Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun, the men signed on deadline day to replace them. "At the moment, losing Fabregas and Nasri is a catastophe,' Arshavin told Russian newspaper Sport-Express. "Watching the Udinese match I said to Bendtner that now we have no-one so comfortable with passing the ball to Robin van Persie or who ideally utilises the qualities of the other forwards. "He smiled and replied, "Yes, the only player who could properly replace Cesc is probably Xavi". I'm very glad that I was able to play in the same team as Fabregas - he is a truly class footballer. "When people say no-one is irreplaceable I don't agree. With Arteta or whoever replaces those who have left, we will play different football, not as we played with Cesc and Samir." Arshavin did give a thumbs up to the recruitment of defenders Per Mertesacker from Borussia Dortmund and Andre Santos from Fenerbahce but lost potential brownie points with Arsene Wenger by insisting his manager should have also added Rennes' Yann M'Vila to bolster the midfield. "I know a bit about Mertesacker, he is a good defender who should definitely help us," he added. "I know nothing about Andre Santos other than that he plays for Brazil - but this in itself shows credentials. "Arteta and Benayoun have long proved themselves in the Premier League, they're not bad signings. And we needed strengthening in those positions. Perhaps another holding midfielder wouldn't have hurt and, as far as I know, we were trying till the last minute to get M'Vila, but unfortunately we weren't able to buy him." One piece of business Wenger was able to do before the transfer window closes was to send Bendtner out on loan to Sunderland and he could be forgiven for wishing he had packed Arshavin off somewhere as well. Does the Russian appreciate the irony of having pontificated about his team's strengths and weaknesses from the vantage point of the bench, where the players who are not good enough to make the starting line-up must sit? Perhaps that is too difficult to translate from the original Cyrillic script but the view of most Arsenal supporters isn't difficult to guess. They would prefer it if Mr Arshavin put in more impressive performances on the pitch at some point in the near future. As for Bendtner, he was on the end of an international duty flaming himself, from Havard Nordtveit, the Norway defender who wasn't even good enough to make even a handful of appearances while at Arsenal. The 21-year-old, who is now at Borussia Monchengladbach, was happy to tell Danish channel TV2 Sport how unlovable Bendtner was - and lazy too. "You could not say much to him because it doesn't take much for him not to like you,' he said. "He has his own way of doing things, but he could have made more of an effort in training when he was at Arsenal. "It was disappointing for Bendtner to have so little time on the field in the last half year but Arsene Wenger always wants to play with his best players and that's what he did." I wonder if Wenger's best player pool will include Arshavin this weekend. We shall soon find out.

 

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