AVB rules out Neymar to Chelsea FC

Sometime the media takes quotes out of context and seems to run with them, but Andre Villas-Boas seems to believe that Neymar will not be making his way to Stamford Bridge this summer. While attending the Lareus World Sports Awards on Monday evening AVB was quoted with the following:

I think the Neymar matter is closed and locked in a safe. He has decided his future and no-one knows where he will go. Unfortunately he will not come to us.

That really doesn't leave much doubt on several fronts. AVB seems to be a fan of the player and we're certainly still interested as a club. So it does appear that Neymar himself seems to prefer a move elsewhere, and one would have to assume that somewhere is in Spain.

While I'm personally a bit disappointed in this news, I'm certainly very open to quite a few other options on our wings. I think it's fairly obvious that we're still interested in several elite young players this summer with slightly smaller price tags, so hopefully the Spanish teams will have less interest in those players now and give us an easier negotiation in acquiring their services. Either way, Neymar is one name that we can seemingly cross off of our wish list for the time being.