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football players from each other. However, recent events in the transfer market cast doubt on this. Sports analyzes what the new policy of our top clubs will lead to.
Zenit started the winter transfer campaign strongly. Central defender Nino and attacking lineman Arthur, who was called upon to replace Malcolm himself, arrived from Brazil for the pre-season training camp in the UAE. A serious boost for an already strong lineup. Young forward Pedro has reached his 18th birthday and received the right to move to St. Petersburg. Of course, after the not very successful experience of adapting the potential star Renan to Russian football, it is too early to consider the young talent a 100% improvement.
A real sensation was the transfer of Ilzat Akhmetov, who, if he did not strengthen the Zenit bench, then certainly weakened it in Krasnodar, the leader of the RPL at the moment. While everyone was admiring the wise spending of the money received from the sale of Malcolm to Saudi Arabia, a strong blow came from competitors. Danil Krugovoy, a graduate of the St. Petersburg team, moved to CSKA by signing a contract under the “4+1” scheme.
According to the blogging community, which has access to inside information from CSKA, the newcomer’s salary will be 1.3-1.6 million euros per season. “Zenith” could well have fulfilled such a contract, and was even capable of outbidding the terms. Although Krugovoy himself claims that the main thing for him is not money, but the opportunity to have gaming practice. It is difficult to break into the first team at Zenit, competing for a place in the lineup with the team captain and leader of the Brazilian diaspora, Douglas Santos. This season in the championship, Krugovoy, who is regularly called up to the Russian national team, played only three full matches, and in another eight he either came on as a substitute for a few minutes or was replaced.
The history of Krugovoi's transfers from Zenit and back is closely connected with the interests of the agents. In 2018, the affairs of the young football player were managed by Eduard Gorovykh, who actively collaborated with the then general manager of Ufa Shamil Gazizov. On the St. Petersburg side, negotiations on signing a contract with the student were led by Vyacheslav Malafeev. He not only criticized, but used the last words in the press to revile the agent who demanded a serious bonus for the agreement.
As a result, Krugovoy left for Ufa for 130 thousand euros. A year later, Zenit returned him for 2 million euros. By the way, the Gorovs also took Ivan Oblyakov from St. Petersburg, whom he then assigned to CSKA with good benefit for himself and Gazizov. A new contract with the army team, valid until 2027, was also signed two years ago with the participation of the Gorovs.
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But the Circle Agent has changed. Livanov is now in charge of his affairs. By the way, he also represents Zenit goalkeeper Denis Adamov, with whom a contract was signed last summer under the “4+1” scheme. The St. Petersburg team paid Sochi a million euros for the goalkeeper. Of course, these are all numbers, and even from a foreign source, but the trend, as they say, is obvious.
The transfer of the 25-year-old Russian national team player as a free agent is a great success for CSKA. Only the army team not only strengthened its roster, but also announced it six months before the transition. It cannot be said that Zenit did not expect this at all. Even the day before departure for the training camp, it was not clear whether Krugovoy would go with the team. He not only flew, but even gave an interview to the official club website, where he talked about plans to prepare for the spring part of the championship.
During the medical examination, the Zenit player generally called the information about the transfer to CSKA rumors. At that time, the final details of the new contract were already being agreed upon. For the management of Zenit this was a strong blow. The chairman of the club's board, Alexander Medvedev, expected to hold another round of negotiations on a new contract with Krugov in the UAE. The information leaked to the press about CSKA's intentions was considered a hoax by the management in order to improve the offer on financial terms.
When it became clear that Krugovoy would leave for a Moscow club in the summer, the reaction was immediate and the sanctions were harsh. The footballer was immediately sent from the training camp to the Zenit-2 location. As Medvedev ironically noted, you can’t play on a team while sitting on two chairs, and in a farm club the defender will get the missing practice. Although Krugovoy did not give any reason to doubt that the football player would fully and fully fulfill all obligations under the contract with Zenit.
Back in the summer, Danil, through an agent, raised the issue of a possible lease in order to have that same practice. Only Zenit head coach Sergei Semak insisted that he needed the player. How necessary are Alexander Kovalenko, Alexander Erokhin, and Alexey Sutormin, who appear on the field extremely rarely. They didn’t even let him go on loan, but sent Arsen Adamov. The ex-Minister of Sports of the Chechen Republic and one of the former leaders of Akhmat, Khaidar Alkhanov, who closely follows his grandson’s career, assured that Medvedev promised to return the defender to Zenit if things didn’t work out for him in Orenburg.
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Now the option of rental castling looks quite logical. After all, there is practically no replacement for Douglas Santos on the left flank of defense at Zenit. Last season, if necessary, this hole was plugged by the versatile and trouble-free Daler Kuzyaev. Only Medvedev’s anger, as a source familiar with the situation assures, is so strong that Krugovoi will not be allowed to go to Orenburg. Even if Adamov returns. Although will he want to return, given that in St. Petersburg he was firmly seated on the bench, and in Orenburg Arsen plays and even received a call to the national team?
Krugovoy’s transfer was sensational for another reason. There was a kind of gentleman's agreement between CSKA and Zenit, which provided for the observance of mutual interests in the transfer market. The St. Petersburg club could have taken advantage of Dynamo's problems and taken Yuri Zhirkov and Alexander Kokorin away from the Blue and White, could have taken advantage of the indecision in the negotiations on the Spartak contract and taken (many still did not understand why) Zelimkhan Bakaev, could have already along the way season to take Wilson Isidore, who broke away from Lokomotiv and declared his reluctance to return to Russia. This has never happened in relation to CSKA.
The last transfer of players from Zenit to CSKA took place before the 1997 season, when Maxim Bokov, Vladimir Kulik and Dmitry Khomukha left the banks of the Neva together with Pavel Sadyrin. This was preceded by the scandalous match between Zenit and Spartak at the end of the 1996 season, after which club president Vitaly Mutko refused to renew the contract with Sadyrin. In 2002, Serbian forward Predrag Randjelovic, who had not taken root in the capital after moving from Anzhi, moved from CSKA to Zenit. And that's all.
Mutko and his Moscow colleague Evgeny Giner were at the forefront of the creation of the RFPL (now RPL). The leaders of two popular clubs conceived an elite league as a counterweight to the PFL, which was ruled with an iron fist by Dynamo boss Nikolai Tolstykh. He regularly won elections for league president with the votes of lower division clubs. Mutko and Giner carried out a real revolution in domestic football. That's when they entered into a gentleman's agreement.
Journalist Alexander Kuzmin, who moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg in search of interesting work, attended almost all training camps and away matches with Zenit for a long time. He knew many of the “secrets of the court” and called the agreements between Mutko and Giner the “Sukharev convention.” Until the fall of last year, it was strictly observed. The presidents of Zenit changed, Giner’s role in CSKA changed, but the “convention” continued to operate.
Everything changed with the arrival of Mario Fernandez at Zenit. Having released the club legend, who was suddenly homesick for his native Brazilian coast, for free, the Muscovites rightly believed that they should not pay when he suddenly missed the Russian birch trees and remembered his passport. CSKA relied on solidarity from all clubs, but did not find mutual understanding with Zenit. It was after Fernandez’s arrival, as a source familiar with the situation said, that the army team began to actively explore the option with Krugov and held several very successful rounds of negotiations.
CSKA now has huge problems with acquiring foreign players, and until recently it was impossible to compete with Zenit in the fight for Russian players. That is why the transfer of Krugovoi can be considered a huge success. They also started talking about the fact that Muscovites would be able to get Sutormin, whom they had their eye on for a long time. His contract with Zenit expires in a year, but a start has been made.
Moreover, they even say in a half-whisper that CSKA can bring back the legend, Sergei Semak. The coach, who led Zenit to victory in the Russian championship five times, has a contract that expires in 2025. Semak received a seat on the club’s board and when asked by a correspondent after the final game of the autumn part of the championship whether the top management listens to his wishes on transfer policy, he replied: “I would like to hope that they do.” Only recent events cast doubt on this.
Zenith’s application for today already includes 10 Brazilians, even if two of them have Russian passports, two Colombians, a Frenchman and Serbian Even taking into account the reform of the limit on foreign players carried out, primarily in the interests of the St. Petersburg club, there is only one place left for a foreigner. Well, now it will be very difficult not only to sign Russian footballers, but also to keep them.
But now it will definitely not be boring at Zenit. It’s time to remember the immortal romance of Ilf and Petrov and throw out the slogan: “We will respond to the departure of Comrade Krugovoi by creating and universally joining the society “Down with routine from football life.” Ticket number one should be given to Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev.
The author's opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors
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