Everton and Liverpool linked Arsen Zakharyan is laughing off speculation regarding his future at Dynamo Moscow while casting doubt on a future in the Premier League, speaking to Match TV.
Late last year, Dynamo’s sporting director insisted that reports linking the 18-year-old whizzkid with an £11 million move to Liverpool were nothing more than ‘agent’s games’.
Can we say the same about Everton’s interest? Or alleged interest. Or is there something more genuine at play, here?
When Marcel Brands was still at Everton, he would often speak to the Russian press to play down links with reported ‘transfer targets’. He did so when asked about Aleksandr Golovin, Sardar Azmoun and Georgian international winger Kvicha Kvaratshkelia.
And, while discussing Zakharyan, Brands insisted reports saying that Everton had opened talks with the four-time Russia international were ‘nonsense’.
Of course, ‘showing an interest in’ and ‘opening talks with’ a certain player are two different things. Brands’ rather bullish response does not mean that the exciting, swashbuckling Zakharyan does not have a place on Everton’s radar.
But the teenager, who is under contract until 2024, is becoming familiar with life in the limelight, and all that entails.
Where next for Arsen Zakharyan?
“I treat rumours about a move to Europe with humour, I guess,” says Zakharyan. “I know who is interested and who is not. If they write ‘Real Madrid’, then I know whether it’s true or not. Is it true? It’s not!”
And Zakharyan, who has five goals and eight assists this season, believes he suits the Bundesliga or La Liga better than the pace-and-power of the Premier League.
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“I would like (to move to) either Germany or Spain,” he adds. “Because there is ‘open’ football. You have to think more. In England, there is more power.”
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