Arsenal’s Andrei Arshavin must be prepared to put up with jeers from Russian fans, his Russia teammate Sergei Ignashevich said Thursday.
Arshavin was brought on as a substitute in Russia’s 1-1 friendly draw with the Ivory Coast on Wednesday to sustained whistling from the crowd which continued whenever he touched the ball.
The Arsenal midfielder attracted harsh criticism from some Russian fans after the appearance of a video following Russia’s exit from Euro 2012 in which he said that Russian fans had expected too much of the team.
“Of course you don’t envy guys [in this situation], but what can you do? You just have to put up with it,” Ignashevich said on his website.
Arshavin could have silenced the jeers by showing off his skills, Ignashevich suggested.
“I tried to pass the ball to Arshavin as often as possible so he could show what he can do and so they’d stop whistling at him. You needed to calm the people down.”
“It’s not nice when people behave like that to a player in the national team. We had a similar situation with Yuri Zhirkov,” Ignashevich said, referring to the former Chelsea wing-back who was booed by Russia fans after joining big-spending Anzhi.
New Russia coach Fabio Capello said after the match that he had been surprised to hear the jeers and did not understand why the incident occurred.
Russia’s next game is against Northern Ireland on September 7 in qualifying for the World Cup and will be Capello’s first competitive game in charge.
