Karpukas' agent: Lokomotiv talks ended in April, decision made in May

Artem Karpukas and his agent decided in May to leave Lokomotiv, according to the agent, Alexander Klyuev. He said the last contact with the club was in April and that talks were dead by then.

Klyuev spoke on the show "Eto futbol, brat!" about how the move to Zenit came about. "The last conversation with Lokomotiv was in April, it all ended," he said. "We told them our position, they told us theirs, then silence." He said the player was ready to stay and that talks had been under way. Then an offer came from Krasnodar, and after it one from Zenit.

Klyuev did not deny that money was part of it. "Financial too, I won't deny it," he said. Asked about the gap of 500,000 roubles a month, he said the last offer came from Boris Rotenberg while the national team was assembling, and that Rotenberg added 500,000 to the salary. "But globally, Artem and I had already made the decision in May," Klyuev said.

He rejected the figure of 200 million. "We asked for very, very adequate money. Super adequate, and everyone who knows what figures we were talking about, the whole public supports that. We didn't ask for any 200 million, that's nonsense," he said.

Klyuev put the club's stance down to a change at the top. "It's probably the position of the new management, some kind of ceiling. Maybe that is how they value players, that is the budget," he said.

The figures Klyuev says were requested have not been made public, and Lokomotiv's side of the talks does not appear in the interview. If his account holds, the deadlock dates to the spring and had little to do with the final 500,000.