We saw Arshavin first! (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

We saw Arshavin first!

11:07am Friday 27th June 2008

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The curse of Valley Parade strikes again.

And it seems that even Europe’s most coveted internationals are not immune.

No sooner is it revealed that Russian dynamo Andrei Arshavin made his Zenit debut at the home of the Bantams, his game immediately plummets to Accrington Stanley level.

(That’s the level of home performance against Accrington last October…) At least City enjoyed the reflected glory of Arshavin’s outing in a West Yorkshire deluge eight years ago. I didn’t hear any other League Two club get a name check from Clive Tyldesley halfway through Thursday’s Euro 2008 semi-final.

Spain was clearly a game too far for Arshavin and the maverick Russians who had given their absolute everything in dominating the Dutch the previous round.

But all this talk about the Barcelona-bound midfielder has allowed 9,500 City fans to smugly tell the world that they were there for his first competitive outing.

Arshavin, then only 18, was on the bench for the Intertoto second leg and came on after half an hour. Reports from that night – it was just before my time – did not mention him, although City were lucky to escape with nil.

There were rumours afterwards that the club were keen on one or two of the Russians who had run rings round them. As a Premiership member at the time, if not for much longer, maybe the targets would have been tempted.

I don’t know if Arshavin was one of those on Chris Hutchings’, or more likely Geoffrey Richmond’s, wish-list but I don’t suppose life has turned out too badly for him since!