The Fans Football Blog3

British tabloid The Daily Mail claims that Barcelona has picked up their interest in CSKA Moscow left winger and Russian international Yuri Zhirkov (25) after the player's transfer to Chelsea couldn't be finalized this week like had been expected.

Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola would have identified five areas to strenghten the team and would see the versatile Rusian as a two-in-one solution who could cover for Eric Abidal at left-back as well as providing an alternative for Thierry Henry on the left wing (read more here).

Chelsea would however still be favourites to complete a transfer. Barcelona would realise they are not in the lead to sign Zhirkov because of the close relationship between CSKA and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The transfer fee asked by CSKA Moscow is believed to be around 21 million euro°.

Read more:
Zhirkov and Lahm on top of left back list
First contact with Deportivo on left back Filipe
Asenjo, Zhirkov and Silva main transfer targets