Former CSKA Moscow coach Valery Gazzaev has hit out at Nikola Vlasic, telling Sport24 that the reported West Ham target is not playing like a £25 million footballer this season.
Vlasic is not be the first player to be have his head turned by transfer speculation.
But you won’t find many CSKA fans taking a sympathetic approach as their star man tries to force his way out of the exit door.
The Croatia international has looked a shadow of his usually irrepressible self in the first few weeks of the new campaign, failing to score a single goal in four games.
It is no secret that Vlasic wants to leave CSKA before next week’s transfer deadline – head coach Alexei Berezutski admitted as much recently – with West Ham United reportedly making a £23 million bid for a man who has also been linked with Italian giants AC Milan (Eurostavka).
But, according to a Gazzaev, Vlasic is doing very little right now to suggest that he is worthy of a big-money switch to the Premier League or Serie A.
Will Nikola Vlasic be a West Ham player before next month?
“Vlasic behaves like he is allowed to do anything. It’s strange to go and beg: ‘Reduce the price, sell me!’,” says Gazzaev, who managed CSKA between 2001 and 2003,
“He belittles himself – it means that he is simply not worth that kind of money.
“You are a professional, you have to go out and play. The rest is off the field.
“’Wow – I’m invited to Milan!’ So what? You have to play well. Don’t you need to play well in Milan? If they watched his last two games, they will think ‘why pay 30 million for him’?”
West Ham entered talks with Vlasic earlier this week.
And, when you consider they have already put forward £23 million, it is hard to imagine that they would refuse to stump up a further £2 million for one of Europe’s most promising young attacking midfielders.
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