Face it, a young Russian footballer doing well at the World Cup was always going to lead to claims of a move to Chelsea.
Aleksandr Golovin was that man, and the 22 year has been the subject of countless claims of a move to Stamford Bridge, with Roman Abramovich repeatedly thrown into the equation.
There may be something in the Russian-owner-must-like-Russian-player slant but it seems that claims of a Chelsea deal being close weren’t accurate, at least according to L’Equipe.
AS Monaco are said to have ‘entered phase two’ of their summer recruitment and the ‘most likely and most imminent’ arrival is Golovin.
The French newspaper reports Monaco’s Russian leaders have edged ahead of Chelsea’s Russian leaders to sign the CSKA Moscow player.
A transfer fee is estimated at €30m.
This follows on from Le 10 Sport’s claims on Friday that Monaco had pushed ahead of the competition by putting a €35m offer down for the player.
