Andrey Arshavin: I am not an Arsenal Patriot

A lot have been said about Andrey Arshavin’s recent public interview where he reiterated his desire to play for Barcelona which he would see as the peak of his career. Many people said many things from their own point of views. Recently, manager Arsene Wenger joined them by saying that he is not the kind of player who would kiss the club badge while celebrating his goal. Wenger also asked Arshavin to show more respect to the club.

In response, Arshavin has admitted that he is not an Arsenal patriot, but he is faithful to the club. He also said that he had never kissed on badge and to him kissing on the badge does not prove anything. He said:

'In principle I could kiss the badge in the next match, but I've never kissed any badge. Just once have I pointed to the flag after Russia beat Holland at the European Championship.

'I don't think it proves anything. I clearly remember one example, at Zenit, when (then president) Vitaly Mutko told us: "We have one player here who kisses the club's badge. I want to see you guys do as such." And in the following winter this player was offloaded to Dynamo Kiev.'

Well, no doubt, Arshavin is a very straight forward person and there is nothing wrong if somebody has any desire to play for any particular club in future. However, the problem is that when you are playing for a club, you can not say something which could lead people to raise question about your commitment to the club. That is exactly what Arshavin has done. No body asked him whether he is an Arsenal patriot. Rather, his wish to play for Barcelona in public has raised some question whether he is really feeling comfortable at Arsenal or he has 100 percent commitment to the club. May be he has even more than 100 percent commitment to the club, but the Russian should not have talked about his wish in such a manner.

Moreover, his agent recently said that the player was disappointed for not winning any trophy with Arsenal. Well, then my question is who among the Arsenal players or fans is happy with the fact that the club could not win any title since FA Cup 2005. It is natural that you would be disappointed if you can not win anything, but that does not mean that you have to reveal your wish to play for another club.