CSKA Moscow promise clarity on Golovin’s Chelsea or Monaco transfer in ‘next couple days’

One of the breakout stars of the 2018 World Cup, Russia’s Aleksandr Golovin looked all but set to join Chelsea, turning the club’s long-standing interest into reality after Juventus had dropped out, but over the weekend AS Monaco revealed their intent to gazump the Blues for the 22-year-old’s signature.

The interest from Monaco was probably no coincidence seeing as how they are lead these days by director of football Michael Emenalo, who surely had known about and scouted Golovin while at Chelsea.

But despite Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev’s assertions that his club would be the “most correct” option for the attacking midfielder, CSKA Moscow owner Yevgeny Giner claims that no final decision or agreement has been made just yet. Soon, but not yet.

“We have no solution for today. When we receive an offer, we always try to negotiate openly. Indeed, we were visited by the vice-president of the “Monaco” Vasilyev who made a proposal for Golovin.

“Chelsea? There is no closed arrangement with them. But the question of his transition to another club will be decided, I think, in the next couple of days.”

Reports earlier today claimed that Chelsea found an agreement, thus un-gazumping ourselves, and that a medical might be occurring as soon as today or tomorrow, but that may have been a bit premature.

The only thing that’s certain is that Golovin is indeed leaving. It is time for him to spread his wings.

“I believe that Sasha can grow into a big star. I’m not sure that this can happen in the Russian championship. Nothing to dissemble, the level of the English Premier League or the championship of Spain is much higher. In order not to ruin Sasha, we must let him go. [...] otherwise degradation will begin. People should grow.”

-Yegeny Giner; source: Sport24 via /r/chelseafc

The wheels of Chelsea’s magic transfer bus are definitely going ‘round and ‘round these days. They’re generating plenty of smoke, too, but depending on how the Golovin, Alisson, and Rugani pursuits work out, it may turn out that we’re simply spinning them in place. (The Higuain transfer coming to fruition meanwhile would mean that we had been burning up the clutch instead of the ti/yres all along...)