Tottenham Hotspur have emerged as the front-runners to sign EURO 2008 star Andrei Arshavin from Russian side Zenit St Petersburg, but will need to sell before they can fund a move for the Russian International.

27-year-old Arshavin has been linked with a move away from Zenit since starring for his country at EURO 2008 recently, with La Liga giants FC Barcelona and Arsenal being heavily linked to the forward along with Spurs.

Arshavin’s agent Dennis Lachter has revealed that his clients personal terms will be high, along with the €27million (£21.3m) price-tag that Zenit have placed on their star man.

Lachter told The Daily Mirror: “The price is very high, as are the personal terms.

“Let us see what happens in the future. It may need English clubs to sell some players first.”

Zenit sporting director Konstantin Sarsaniya had earlier revealed that there had been contact with Tottenham, confirming that Spurs had made a €20million (£15.8m) offer to take Arshavin to White Hart Lane.

"With Tottenham we have contacts,” Sarsaniya said.

“This English club is really interested in acquiring Andrei but, as I understand it 27million euros is too high a price for them.

“For Spurs, it is unacceptable. Tottenham are ready to pay in the region of 20million euros for Arshavin.”

Spurs boss Juande Ramos has also been linked with Arshavin’s International team-mate, striker Roman Pavlyuchenko at Spartak Moscow, with funds available to bring in a new strike-force if Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane get their desired moves to Manchester United and Liverpool respectively.