Chelsea have confirmed this evening that they have signed Russian left-sided utility man Yuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow on a three-year contract.
The 25-year-old inked the deal at the Blues' Cobham training ground this evening, and was clearly delighted to have done so, telling the club's official website, "Any footballer would be happy to sign a contract with Chelsea, and at any time, Goal.com reported.
"I have been received very well here, and have been shown the base at the Cobham training ground, everything is super."
Chelsea have some famous Russian links, of course, from their owner down, and Zhirkov was also pleased that there were some colleagues around who could help him acclimatise, though he was already aware of some of the background to the Premier League.
"Of course it is good when some of the players speak Russian, even today Petr Cech translated some bits and pieces, and I understand some words in English. Now I hope to learn English too," he explained.
"I always used to watch English football on the TV and know about Dmitri Kharine and Alexei Smertin at Chelsea."