Leaving the Bridge? Yuri Zhirkov is unhappy at only
being a bit-part plsyer at Chelsea
Yuri Zhirkov will consider his future in January if he
remains a bit-part player at
Chelsea. Zenit St Petersburg
and Spartak Moscow are both monitoring the Russian, who saw his
first season blighted by knee injuries after an £18million move to
Stamford Bridge from CSKA Moscow last year.
As a left winger or full back, he is behind Ashley Cole and
Florent Malouda at Chelsea and he said: ‘I’ll certainly get a
chance in the next few months and I’ll try to use it
completely.
‘Then, in the winter, everything will probably depend on whether
I got this chance and how I used it.
‘We are currently in brilliant form and getting past Malouda and
Cole is problematic. Everyone understands about the competition:
once you are on the bench you can be there for a long time. But I
will definitely get a chance.
‘The thoughts when you are watching your team play are always
the same: you support, worry and your soul wants to be on the pitch
to help.’
Before leaving CSKA, the 27-year-old was wary about ending up at
a club where he
would be merely a squad player and Russia boss Dick Advocaat has
concerns about players not playing regularly.
Zhirkov admitted before moving to Chelsea that he marvelled at
AC Milan and Barcelona rather than English football when he was a
youngster, and he has named his newborn daughter Milan.
But he joked: ‘Now all I have to do is change my son’s name to
Milan and (AC Milan owner Silvio) Berlusconi will finally
understand. I am joking, but all over the internet it will say that
Zhirkov wants to go to AC Milan.’
