MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has said that the London club will not increase their offer of 12 million pounds ($16.6 million) for Zenit St. Petersburg forward Andrei Arshavin.
"This is our final offer - we don't go any further," he told Britain's Daily Star newspaper.
"If we don't get him, we don't get him. There are other fish in the sea. There is a limit. We made an offer and have now increased it a bit," he also said. The total sum could rise to 15 million pounds depending on Arshavin's performances.
Arsenal previously bid 10 million pounds for the 27-year-old forward.
Officials from the North London club were earlier reported to be due in St. Petersburg for talks with Zenit. However, Hill-Wood said he did not where the information had come from.
"I don't know where that whole thing came from," he said. "There was never any suggestion anyone would go over there."
Zenit general director Maxim Mitrofanov told Sport Express on Thursday that the transfer talks were "not simple, but moving ahead, and we hope that they will come to a logical conclusion."
Arshavin announced last year that if he was not allowed to leave in the winter transfer window then he would remain a Zenit player "on paper only."
His agent has said that if the player is not allowed to leave the club before the end of the transfer window in nine days time, then he may buy out his contract in November under FIFA rules.
Arshavin told Sport Express that only God could help him make the move to a top foreign side.
"My hopes are, let's say, with the Almighty alone. Apart from Him, it appears, no one else is able to help me," Arshavin told the paper.
"One way or another, everything depends on Zenit. If they want to sell me, then they'll do it very quickly," the player added.
He also said that, "Arsenal suit me completely as an option to continue my career. The club, the trainer and the championship - all of them meet my desire to test myself at a new level."
Arshavin was linked with a number of clubs, including Barcelona and Tottenham, in the summer after leading Russia to the semifinals of Euro 2008. However, Gazprom-controlled Zenit subsequently turned down a number of offers, reportedly in excess of $30 million, for the player as "too low."
