Chelsea will sell the Russian left back, Yuri Zhirkov, to the Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in a move that will clear the space for the arrival of Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspurs.
The deal will be for 13 million pounds, and that is a reasonable price for a player who has not looked a bit comfortable in the English Premier League. It is a good deal from Chelsea’s perspective.
Zhirkov is in the last year of his contract and could leave for free next summer, under the Bosman ruling.
Now, they’ve just lost 5 million pounds on a player who was signed for 18 million pounds in 2009. Zhirkov came into the club after a brilliant Euro 2008 with Russia and an excellent season with CSKA Moscow.
However, he never fit in to Chelsea’s style of play and disappointed the supporters who were expecting him to be an able understudy for Ashley Cole on the left side of defense. His knee injury didn’t help him either and he has played in just 29 league games in the last two seasons.
The emergence of Patrick van Aanholt has allowed Chelsea to consider selling the player and Zhirkov also appears to be happy to return to Russia. Anzhi Makhachkala are one of the nouveau rich clubs on the European scene, after they were taken over by Suleyman Kerimov, a Russian billionaire. They have been making bids for top players and have been spending lavishly and have landed Roberto Carlos, the former Brazilian left back.
Under the new UEFA regulations, a club is allowed to have only 17 non home grown players and Zhirkov’s sale will free up the space for another non home grown player to move in. That player is most likely to be Luka Modric, for whom Chelsea have already had two bids rejected.
The bids were for 22 million and 27 million pounds and Spurs are looking for something well excessive of that figure. Modric has already signaled his intent to move to Chelsea and have another crack at Champions League football. Spurs finished fifth last season and will be playing in the Europa League this season.
It is clear from the contradictory statements from the Spurs management that they are angling for a better price for the diminutive midfielder. Daniel Levy, the chairman, has said that Modric will never be sold but the assistant manager, Kevin Bond, said yesterday that he will be sold if the price was right.