Chelsea Target Salomon Rondon Off To Russia Instead

Salomon Rondon has been a name doing the rounds as a potential backup striker to Fernando Torres, and has been on the lips of many WAGNH readers since June when initial interest first emerged. Those of you hoping for Chelsea to engineer a move for the Venezuluan striker will be disappointed with the news that he has instead chosen Rubin Kazan as his getaway from the turmoil currently engulfing Malaga.

Rondon was looking for the nearest escape route and has thus signed a four year contract with the 2009 Russian champions, with the fee rumoured at around ten million euros.

This is obviously pretty disappointing from a Chelsea point of view - Rondon would have been a neat pick up to supplant Fernando Torres, and his attributes would have been a nice complement in terms of the squad's striking department. If we really did have any interest, then I'd expect the club to be moving onto their other targets this week, which is where a supposed second bid for Andre Schurrle makes a bit of sense.

What the Rondon transfer also reveals is the severity of the situation at Malaga. With the club now facing the grim reality of having to sell their best players in order to cover their debt, they could be the scene of a bidding war for talent such as Isco and Jeremy Toulalan. This in turn will only lead to a depreciation of the quality outside the top two in Spain, as Malaga was perhaps the only club, with their financial clout, that could one day feasibly challenge Madrid or Barcelona. It's not a good time to be a Malaga fan, but a good time to be a fan of Rubin Kazan.