Tottenham are ready to break the bank to land Zenit St Petersburg star Andrei Arshavin in an £18 million deal.

The Mail on Sunday says officials from the club are expected to fly out to St Petersburg this week hoping to exploit an impasse in negotiations between Barca and Zenit and persuade Arshavin that he can fulfil his ambition at Spurs.

Russia's top player in Euro 2008, who was one of the revelations of the tournament, is desperate to move to Barca but the Catalan club have gone cold on the deal, leaving Zenit with no bidders.

Barca, having agreed a provisional £12m fee before Euro 2008, are unwilling to go ahead with deal now that Zenit have increased the fee to £20m after his displays in Austria and Switzerland.