Marcotti: Arshavin arrives, but someone must make way

Andrey Arshavin was finally confirmed as an Arsenal player yesterday, 24 hours after the transfer window closed, leaving the Premier League to defend its decision to sanction the £12 million deal after some of the paperwork was not received in time.

It took until 5pm yesterday, exactly 24 hours after the window closed, before Arsenal could confirm the deal to sign Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg, with the documents being scrutinised by the FA and the Premier League throughout the day. That paperwork included an e-mail that was not sent by Zenit until after the transfer deadline, while there were also unconfirmed claims that one of the documents submitted by Arsenal was incomplete, but last night the Premier League defended its decision to allow the transfer to go through.

“Substantively, the deal was done before the deadline,” a Premier League spokesman said. “It was lodged with us prior to the transfer window closing and we were satisfied that the deal was done in time.”

The delay over the Arshavin deal will lead to calls for greater transparency from the Premier League and the FA. This is not the first time they have allowed a deal to go through after the transfer window has closed. Famous cases include the swap deal between Arsenal and Chelsea for William Gallas and Ashley Cole in the summer of 2006, Liverpool’s signing of Javier Mascherano from West Ham United in January 2007 and the deal that took Benjani Mwaruwari from Portsmouth to Manchester City last year, which was not completed until five days after the transfer window closed.

Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal chief executive, said that the club had done everything above board. “Everything was done before the deadline and submitted in time so I don’t think there was any deadline issue,” he said. “This is the nature of deadlines. People will wait till the last minute before they make concessions. Sometimes you just have to let the clock run down.”

In theory, Arshavin could make his Arsenal debut against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, but, even if he convinces Arsène Wenger of his fitness, the 27-year-old will not be eligible to play in that game unless a work permit and international clearance are received in time.

Arshavin is not eligible to play for Arsenal in the Champions League this season, having already done so for Zenit, but he said: “I am so happy to be joining Arsenal. They are one of the leading football clubs in the world, with a group of fantastic young players and a great manager. I am looking forward to making the Arsenal supporters happy and helping this great club win trophies.”