Well done to Spurs. There's so much commercial power in the modern game that at times it seems as much a sport of money merry-go-rounds than football itself.

Clubs are often accused of spinning the wheel seeing just how far they can push fans to invest in merchandise and tickets, but at the same time are themselves held to ransom over agents playing the field over exorbitant wage demands - highest bidder wins.

The pressures on success are bigger than ever, which is why it was so refreshing to see Tottenham Hotspur turn around and raise a firm two fingers to Zenit St Petersburg in their pursuit of Andrei Arshavin.

Remember, this is a player who pretty much no-one had heard of prior to Euro 2008 qualification, and a guy who is no spring chicken having recently celebrated his 27th birthday. Yet there was a transfer stampede following a few good performances for Russia, the like of which hadn't been seen since Peter Taylor shelled out £5million for ace hitman Ade Akinbiyi, and a player with a touted value of £8million twelve months ago was now supposedly worth three times that amount.

So with a potential bidding war starting Zenit spun the wheel, the price creeping up like Thierry Henry's stockings on a cold winter's afternoon at The Dell. Russian greed took over just a few seconds before British common sense.

Spurs walked away from the deal, something that unsurprisingly prompted the Petersburg outfit to come back and lower their price, but all to no avail.

Deal off, and quite right too, and how refreshing is it to see to a club sticking to their guns, particularly with Berbatov's departure certain to leave them painfully light up front.

It's not even as if the player was particularly sold on the deal, stating that: "When the Tottenham offer was made, I was sceptical."

Well, no need to be sceptical anymore sunshine, as it appears you've as much chance playing at Plough Lane next season as you have White Hart Lane.