Based on a very reliable Russian source Zhirkov is about to be sold to Anzhi Mahachkala.

He is currently at their training base discussing personal terms.

Making space for new signings, wish he would have had a better spell over here but injuries and malouda didnt make that happen!

Making space for new signings, wish he would have had a better spell over here but injuries and malouda didnt make that happen!

Not making space for new signings, but making space for our youngsters.

Had a doubt this would happen when he kept being played in midfield. Anyway, its the right move for both parties and with Anzhi involved we can hope to recover most of what we paid for him in the first place.

Edited August 1, 201114 yr by footballoholic

10-15m probably... :D

you could see he had class, just never really got the chance to show it, mainly down to injuries.

Not making space for new signings, but making space for our youngsters.

I think so, too. One of Van Aanholt/Bertrand will probably become Ashley's backup and the other will go out on loan.

There were also rumors of Porto's Alvaro Pereira linked to be reunited with AVB.

Atleast that's one player off the list if we sell, gives us room for 2 foreign players.

If this is true then i am a little surprised. He played a lot in pre season and looked decent enough. I think he is great at running into the box and panicing defenders. I would rather have him than Malouda BUT i dont think he has settled over in England. I think he struggles with English.

Link

Translates to:

The publication reports that the 27-year-old former footballer Tambov Spartak and CSKA Moscow signed a contract with the club and Makhachkala was physical. However, no official comment on preehode not yet been reported, and the general director Anji Chistyakov Herman declined to comment about the information held on the transition of Russia and midfielder Chelsea in Makhachkala club.

"We do not comment on the rumors until the official announcement. For two weeks we made the decision. As soon as something concrete, we will share information with our partner ", - quotes Chistyakov SE.

I had such high expectations for Yuri when he got here. Those mazy runs and highlight goals he was scoring for CSKA made me dream he could do that here. Sometimes we just dont seem to have the luck with creative players.

All the best to him, and I hope we can recoup at least 15 of the 18m we paid. He is still pretty young, after all.

I had such high expectations for Yuri when he got here. Those mazy runs and highlight goals he was scoring for CSKA made me dream he could do that here. Sometimes we just dont seem to have the luck with creative players.

All the best to him, and I hope we can recoup at least 15 of the 18m we paid. He is still pretty young, after all.

The fee is £13.8m apparently which is pretty generous from Anzi

Sad to see the russian ronaldinho leave.

how do our spaces look like for foreign players now when we sell zhirkov? 2 spaces right? one for modric (if he signs) and one for essien and its full I take it?

No we will have 2 without essien, and essien won't be registered till jan till the earliest.

The story's hit the English media now. From the Mail:

Zhirkov poised for Chelsea exit as ambitious Anzhi close in on Russian midfielder

Yury Zhirkov looks set to end an unhappy two years at Chelsea by returning to Russia.

The 27-year-old has been spotted at the Moscow training base of mega rich club Anzhi Makhachkala and was said to be going through a medical ahead of a £13.2million move.

Zhirkov has been plagued by persistent injuries in both knees since joining Chelsea from CSKA Moscow for £18m in 2009.

The Russia international struggled to find a regular spot when he was fit during Carlo Ancelotti’s reign and rarely featured in his favourite position on the left wing.

Andre Villas-Boas often used Zhirkov in midfield on the pre-season tour of the Far East.

But Zhirkov would struggle to gain a foothold if Chelsea win the race to sign Luka Modric from Tottenham, while Villas-Boas has also indicated he wants to give 18-year-old Josh McEachran more opportunities.

At the end of last season, Zhirkov admitted: 'Unfortunately at Chelsea I haven't had enough match practice in the last season,' he said. 'I want to play football and not sit on the bench.

'I can't say anything more on the subject. We'll see how everything goes. There's not point ruling out a return to Russia.'

Rubin Kazan, Dynamo Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg have also shown interest in Zhirkov, but sources in Russia claim a deal with Anzhi is all but agreed.

The club from Dagestan were bought by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov earlier this year and have been looking for high-profile signings to join Roberto Carlos.

Carlos, who left Corinthians for a lucrative move to Anzhi in February, has tried to help the club recruit Neymar and Paulo Henrique Ganso from Santos.

Earlier in the summer, the club’s coach Gadzhi Gadzhiev expressed an interest in signing Roman Pavlyuchenko, but the Tottenham striker is keen to stay in London and dismissed talk of a move.

After also being linked with Palermo’s Javier Pastore and Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o, Anzhi general director German Chistyakov has grown tired of responding to media reports and would not confirm an interest in Zhirkov.

‘We do not comment on rumours until the official announcement,’ he said. ‘We made this decision two weeks ago. Once something is concrete we will share this information.’

LINK

See ya Yuri.

Such a shame if true (suspect it is) really thought he could be a World Class winger on the big stage. Injuries and limited as cover to Ashley Cole rather than challenging Malouda for a left wing berth.

Talks about Gael Kakuta going on loan halted I hope, but I feel he is going to Swansea or West Ham.

Leaves us with even less width in our squad, we surely must have something lined up or this is suicidal!

:(

Always had high hopes for him, never fulfilled though, which is a great shame. All the best to him.

When we signed him I thought we'd finally got someone close to Robben. A shame it didnt work out.

All the best Yuri.

Such a shame if true (suspect it is) really thought he could be a World Class winger on the big stage. Injuries and limited as cover to Ashley Cole rather than challenging Malouda for a left wing berth.

Talks about Gael Kakuta going on loan halted I hope, but I feel he is going to Swansea or West Ham.

Leaves us with even less width in our squad, we surely must have something lined up or this is suicidal!

By letting Yuri go, and possibly losing Malouda and/or Kalou, we must surely have wing targets lined up.

Now if we could recoup something similar for Bosingwa like we have with Zhirkov, I would be over the moon

Always had high hopes for him, never fulfilled though, which is a great shame. All the best to him.

My thoughts too. If the fees are right, glad we took a chance on him still. I wonder if his career would have been different if Hiddink stayed instead of Carlo coming in (obviously he would have had to stay healthy too).

He never scored the amount of goals we would have hoped, but I do remember him earning us at least 3 penalties when he took guys on in the box.

Expect movements soon (imo).

Expect movements IN soon (imo).