On November 26th, we carried a report from TuttoMercatoWeb, who stated that Everton are ‘pressing hard’ to sign Dynamo Moscow star Arsen Zakharyan.
It was also explained ‘contacts are proceeding very quickly’ for the transfer of the 18-year-old, who has a valuation above €10m.
Marcel Brands, the Toffees sporting director, wasted no time in rubbishing the claims made by TMW about the Merseyside club’s interest in the midfielder.
“This is nonsense,” Brands told Sport24’s sports correspondent Denis Nikolaev.
The former Ajax chief made these claims just an hour after the Russia international’s agent admitted he hasn’t been approached by Rafael Benítez’s side.
“I have no such information [about Everton’s interest]. Maybe Dynamo were approached, but not us. Anything is possible, but clubs from Europe did not contact me directly,” Zakharyan’s agent Pavel Andreev told Sport24.
The representative, however, opened the door for his client to make a switch to a top European club in the near future.
“Is Arsen ready to leave? He needs to go, he needs to play in Europe, that’s for sure. But this is his decision – whatever he takes, it will be so. Any footballer needs to go abroad if there is an offer,” Andreev explained.
With Brands’ blunt response to claims of Everton’s interest and the agent stressing he was not approached by the Premier League side, it should stop the Toffees being linked with Zakharyan for the time being.
Earlier this month, Zakharyan was also rumoured to be of interest to Liverpool, Chelsea and a few other clubs from Europe. Sergey Stepashin, a member of Dynamo board of directors, quickly dismissed these reports.
