Former AS Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has expanded on why Zenit St Petersburg striker Artem Dzyuba failed to land a move to England last summer.

Linked with Wolves and Everton, Dzyuba hired super agent Jorge Mendes to get him a move to the Premier League - a choice criticised by Vasilyev at the time.

He explained to Sport-Express: "People connected with Dzyuba came to me, there was interest on their part. For my part, I also expressed interest, but then they told me that Artem had signed an agreement with Jorge Mendes. I immediately said that this was a mistake - I don't know if this information reached Dzyuba. Despite the fact that for me Mendes is the best agent in the world. Number one. And also my friend.

"Why a mistake? Because Jorge, like any person, has only 24 hours in a day. Plus, there is no personal contact with the player. It was obvious that he would deal with Dzyuba on a residual basis. When I met Mendes at the end of August here, in Monaco, on the Champions League draw, I asked: 'Jorge, why didn't you sell Dzyuba?' He asked: 'Who is he? And this?'. It even took him a while to remember who I was talking about!

"To make a transfer, they need to deal with purposefully. Of course, it can happen by accident. But this is unlikely. And for the transfer to take place, we must deal with it, know the person, believe that this should happen. At that time, Mendes had Joao Felix (now Atletico Madrid) and many others."