Russian attacking midfielder, Arsen Zakharyan, has aimed a dig at Chelsea after his failed move to the Premier League club.
Zakharyan has been strongly linked to Chelsea in the last three transfer windows.
Chelsea were set to trigger the player’s €15million release clause last summer and sign the 20-year-old from Dynamo Moscow.
But the move fell through because of a number of complications, including the British sanctions placed on Russia amid the country’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Chelsea tried to revive the deal in the January transfer window, but their attempts also failed.
Also, during the recently concluded summer transfer window, some reports claimed that Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly was planning to use a loophole to bring Zakharyan to the west London club.
That loophole would have seen Zakharyan head to Chelsea’s sister club, Strasbourg, where Boehly has a majority stake, as it would have been easier for Zakharyan to move to Chelsea from there rather than Russia.
However, Zakharyan decided to join La Liga club Real Sociedad over the summer instead.
Speaking on the development, Zakharyan insisted that Real Sociedad are a ‘more interesting’ club than Chelsea.
“For me, it was more interesting to come to Real Sociedad than to Chelsea,” Zakharyan said, as quoted by Metro UK.
“It was also a more realistic option. I realised that I was already a Real player when I signed, I was worried about some issues during the negotiation, but now… here I am,” he said.