Arsene Wenger last night completed a last-gasp £10million deal for Andrei Arshavin - despite an 11th hour drama.
Russia playmaker Arshavin, 27, chartered a private jet to fly to London, paid his club Zenit St Petersburg half of his £2m signing-on fee and took a £20,000-a-week pay cut to join Arsenal and finally end the longrunning transfer saga.
But Zenit threatened to pull the plug at the last minute in frustration at Arsenal because the Gunners had won the game of brinkmanship and got Arshavin for half the original asking price.
Arsenal will pay an initial £10m rising to £12m depending on success and appearances after calling Zenit's bluff as the deal was finally pushed through at the last minute.
Zenit furiously rang Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea yesterday to try and sell Arshavin for a higher price. They also threatened to pull the plug at the last minute as they haggled over a £2.5m contract dispute.
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But Arsenal finally registered the deal - as first revealed in Mirror Sport on December 23 - with the Premier League with only minutes to spare before last night's 5pm deadline.
Zenit later even claimed the deal was off as they resorted to dirty tricks but, having registered the deal with the Premier League, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has finally got his man.
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