Spartak Moscow forward Alexander Sobolev is stuck in a half-position. The head coach of the «red-whites» Dejan Stankovic no longer counts on him, but the forward can't leave either. What should the disgraced footballer do and what future awaits him?
The saga of Sobolev's possible departure from Spartak to Zenit has been going on all summer. At first, it was hard to believe these rumors: Alexander, of course, is not a dazzler in the «red-whites», but he does his job well. Besides, try to find a striker of similar dimensions in the country now, if the club's management, of course, does not have a devoted fan of Artem Dzyuba's talents. These facts could indicate that the new coach of the «red-whites» Stankovic will insist on keeping Sobolev in the team. After all, the scheme with a textured striker worked more or less, so why break everything, especially at the very beginning, until the Serb gets used to the RPL?
However, Stankovic's arrival in Tushino became a serious catalyst for Sobolev's mood change. According to rumors, Alexander stopped training hard, showed his dissatisfaction with being at Spartak and generally ruined the atmosphere. At first, the club's general director Oleg Malyshev harshly suppressed such rumors, claiming that Sobolev continued to selflessly fulfill the terms of his contract. These words raised doubts, given the practically confirmed interest from St. Petersburg: Sergei Semak increasingly spoke about the need to buy a tall striker, and one of the club's bosses, Alexander Medvedev, in his favorite manner, hinted at negotiations that had gained momentum. But the championship had already begun, and no transfer had happened.
By this time, Sobolev had played for a little over an hour in the first round match against Orenburg (0:2), and so unsuccessfully that there was increasing talk about the need to part ways with the striker as soon as possible. Things became even more serious when Spartak decided to suspend Alexander from training. In modern football, this can only mean one thing — the player's imminent departure from the team. But he is still not there. Moreover, there is increasing talk about Zenit hunting for Krasnodar's top striker John Cordoba. It turns out that the hegemon is choosing between two players and cannot decide yet. Or maybe the negotiations for both have reached a dead end? Or has Semak found a third option?
Be that as it may, Sobolev's career is in limbo, in complete uncertainty. What should the footballer do? Asking to return to the Spartak squad is practically unrealistic, since in this case the fans will «eat» both Alexander and Stankovic. Make financial concessions and insistently advertise himself to other RPL clubs? Frankly, the circle of interested teams is very narrow, and Sobolev is not the kind of player who can seriously move during negotiations. And this is not a question of money, but of image — the striker will not cheapen.Let's assume that the outcome of this complicated transfer story does not come in August and Sobolev's side will work more actively on the domestic market. Having quickly analyzed the options, we can state that a forward, firstly, is prohibitively expensive in the current conditions of the RPL, and secondly, there are few places for him. Except, of course, the aforementioned Zenit, but we will leave this option aside for now. CSKA needs a striker after the departure of Fedor Chalov, but it is unlikely that the army team's management will agree to a toxic and expensive transfer.
Lokomotiv simply does not have the money, and it is not yet believed that Sobolev will be exchanged for Sergei Pinyaev. As for Dynamo, at the beginning of the season there were problems in the attack — Konstantin Tyukavin needs a quality replacement. I emphasize, a replacement, and Sobolev will not sit quietly «on the bench». «Krasnodar» simply does not need Alexander, even if Cordoba leaves. Fedor Smolov has returned to the south of Russia, he already has interesting young people behind him (the same Alexander Koksharov), and revenge on a direct competitor in the person of «Zenit» for the potential departure of the Colombian is not about Sergei Galitsky.
It turns out that Sobolev has reached a dead end in his career. So far, it is vaguely imagined what can help him. Unless St. Petersburg deigns to write the necessary check to «Spartak» and does not try to mold the forward into a new Artem Dzyuba. But this is also hard to believe — the clubs' negotiations have finally reached a dead end.
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