Everton, director of football Marcel Brands, has rubbished claims that Monaco have asked €46m for midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.
The Blues were linked with the Russian midfielder this week, with it believed he is on their list of potential targets for the January transfer window.
Everton boss Rafa Benitez is keen to strengthen his squad in the winter window and is believed to have money to spend after the club got rid of James Rodriguez after the summer transfer window had closed.
Improving the midfield will be key given the issues in that position, and several British outlets, including the Liverpool Echo, had cited an asking price of £40m.
Brands has now dismissed that, though, with Sport-Express reaching out to the Everton chief about the rumours.
“The information that Monaco asked us for €46m for Golovin is absolute nonsense,” he told the website.
Unfortunately, the Russian outlet appears to have got their wires crossed when reaching out to Brands on the subject.
They specifically mentioned the Liverpool Echo quoting a €46m price tag, but the reality is that the newspaper only mentioned reports elsewhere and stated his price tag was ‘said to be around £40m’. At no point did they claim it was their information.
Either way, it seems Brands is not very impressed by the suggestion, which is wide of the mark anyway.
Interestingly, what he doesn’t do is absolutely deny the rumours, which suggests there may be something to them.
That remains to be seen, of course, but what we do know is that Everton won’t be paying anywhere near what has been suggested.
