After only finishing third last season, it was expected that Zenit St. Petersburg’s newly appointed head coach Mircea Lucescu would make some changes this season. However, with no Champions League football in sight (unless FC Rostov are banned from European football because of Financial Fair Play irregulations) Zenit could be forced to sell players before starting to rejuvenate a squad where several key players are pushing 30, and where the youngest regular starter last season was 25-year-old Oleg Shatov.
So far however, Lucescu’s only act as head coach have been some additions to the back-room staff, while also opening the door for dethroned striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov to return to the first team.
“Lucescu assured [me] that he is counting on me,” Kerzhakov told Radio Zenit after returning from his loan at FC Zurich.
Now however, it looks like Lucescu has made his mind about his squad, and transfer rumours about the Zenit players are starting to emerge.
Belgian central defender Nicolas Lombaerts, who has been with the club since 2007, could be the first one out the door. “On one hand, I hope to continue playing for Zenit,” he told Belgian newspaper La Libre earlier this month, “On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind playing for a club closer to my home.”
Monday, Lombaerts called the Dutch Eresdivise ‘very interesting’, and considering PSV has recently sold central defender Jeffrey Bruma to Wolfsburg, the Eindhoven club seems like a good option for Lombaerts, although he would have to accept a pay cut as reported by Championat. While the interest is there, official offers are yet to land in St. Petersburg according to van Stee, who’d be happy to keep the Belgian: “He still has a contract for two more years, and he is an outstanding player for us. We will start talking when a club is really interested in him and puts out a serious offer.”
Further up the field we find Axel Witsel, who with just one year left of his contract is also drawing interest from abroad. “I want a new experience, and I don’t know if it will be in the [English] Premier League or in Serie A,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport two weeks ago, “I’m fascinated by Italian football, and at the age of 27, it would be the right move for me to make.”
While Witsel in April stated that he hadn’t closed the door on Zenit, he has for a time looked like a man who was on to bigger challenges, which Zenit are also aware of. “Witsel’s agents are dreaming of selling him somewhere,” Zenit general director Maksim Mitrofanov told TASS in March, “But we will be happy if he continues playing in our team.”
Because of Witsel’s fondness for Italy, he has already been rumoured to all of the major clubs, and the Italian transfer guru Gianluca Di Marzio has already reported that representatives of Witsel’s has met with the club.
Zenit are however not letting one of their most prized assets leave cheaply, and therefore it seems more realistic that Witsel, if he leaves, ends up in England, where the new TV-deal gives most of the Premiership clubs the financial strength needed to purchase the Belgian. In January, Stoke had a €15-16 million bid for Witsel rejected according to Mitrofanov, and the only clubs ready to pay what Zenit demands at the moment are, according to Di Marzio, Chelsea and Everton with the latter reportedly leading the race.
Last but not least, Brazilian striker Hulk seems to finally be in for the mega-money move that have been on the recipe for quite some time now. Reports are that the ace is being signed to replace Asamoah Gyan at Shanghai SIPG, who has struggled with injuries injuries, and several media outlets are reporting a total fee of €55 million, €15 million more than Zenit paid for Hulk in 2012.
The 29-year-old striker is expected to arrive in Shanghai Wednesday to undergo medical examination. “The cost of the transfer deal is $60 million [€54.6m]” a source told TASS, “Moreover, the deal also stipulates extra bonuses for Zenit FC in case Hulk scores over 15 goals for the Chinese club.” About Hulk’s salary, the source told: “The player’s salary with the exempt of bonuses will be $12.5 million [€11.37m] per year.”
Where does this leave Zenit?
Sales of Hulk and Witsel would give Zenit the financial freedom to act on the transfer market that they lacked last summer, where Financial Fair Play instead forced them to sell Jose Salomon Rondon.
Last season, Hulk scored 17 goals and assisted another 16 from his spot on the right wing, and replacing him is almost impossible for Zenit. Hulk was ranked first on the RFN Top 50 in January, and he has won the RFN Player of the Season award in the previous two seasons, proving just how important he is for the Blue-White-Sky Blues. The same thing can probably be said about Witsel too, although his contribution to Zenit’s success isn’t as obvious and flashy.
However, even though Hulk recently signed a contract that would keep him in St. Petersburg until 2019, he is most likely peaking at the moment, and with him turning 30 at the end of July, selling him now, before the inevitable price plunge is good trademanship by Zenit, even though it means losing their best player.
Zenit already has a likely replacement for Hulk in Aleksandr Kokorin, but despite his early promise, the Russian international is nowhere near the level of the Brazilian. Hulk’s departure would furthermore leave Zenit with little depth up front, as Danny is currently side-lined with a long-term injury, meaning Zenit will need to bring in at least one, but preferably two players who can operate on the wings, depending on how Lucescu wants to play.
On the midfield, a Witsel sale would also force Zenit to replace him as Artur Yusupov never will be able to play regularly for a club with Zenit’s ambitions.
Since Gazprom secured the ownership of Zenit in December 2005, the club has been known for paying large transfer sums primarily for already developed talent such as Danny, Vladimir Bystrov, Bruno Alves, Domenico Criscito, Hulk, Witsel, Javi Garcia and lastly Artem Dzyuba. But, with the Financial Fair Play regulations purchasing developed stars is becoming more and more difficult for a club with Zenit’s limited income, especially when they miss out on the lucrative Champions League. Therefore, as it has been suggested elsewhere, Zenit should consider changing their transfer strategy, relying more on younger and cheaper players, preferably with potential to be sold with a profit after a few years. Lucescu and Zenit will furthermore need to consider paying more attention to the club’s academy to remove the burden of always having to bring in players from other clubs.
Lucescu had a lot of success with this approach in Shakhtar, and while it might be a difficult strategy to sell to the fans who have gotten used to seeing stars take the pitch at Petrovsky Stadium it would make be more sustainable long-term speaking, as Zenit would be able to bring in more players.
Author: Toke Møller Theilade
Brøndby supporter, groundhopper and more importantly Editor-in-Chief at Russianfootballnews.com. As a hopeless romantic, I still believe Fyodor Smolov and Viktoria Lopyreva has a future together.
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