Chelsea have made a formal offer to sign Dynamo Moscow midfielder Arsen Zakharyan, according to Gianluca Di Marzio.
The Blues have made six signings during the ongoing transfer window. Three of them in Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei are considered as long-term prospects.
Zakharyan has emerged as the latest emerging player on their radar, and Di Marzio claims that talks are already underway with Dynamo. Chelsea hope to secure his signature quickly.
Our view:
The 19-year-old has made a big impression since graduating through the Dynamo ranks. He can operate anywhere in midfield and has managed 29 goal contributions from just 52 appearances.
Hence, he appears a huge prospect for club and country in the future, and Chelsea have now formalised their interest such that they can secure his services as soon as possible.
Di Marzio has not specified the exact transfer fee required, but Sport-Express report that the Blues will trigger his £12.6m release clause, having monitored him for 12 months.
The interest in the Russian prodigy seems genuine with his representative Pavel Andreev also confirming that Chelsea are very close to finalising an agreement with Dynamo.
Chelsea have been the biggest spenders in the Premier League this summer (£181.4m). They have been clever with their recruitment with a few signings made for the future.
The arrival of Zakharyan would take their spending to £194m, but their outlay could easily end up at £300m with their interest in Anthony Gordon, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Wesley Fofana.
Aubameyang seems the most likely of the trio to join the club from Barcelona. Everton and Leicester City are playing hardball over negotiations for Gordon and Fofana respectively at the moment.
Chelsea will be hoping that they can make the breakthrough in talks for the Premier League duo before next week’s transfer deadline. The transfer window closes at 11pm BST on September 1.
