With just a day and a half left of the summer transfer window, it is time to examine which transfers we can expect to see before the window closes. So far this summer has mostly been about players leaving Russia, but the departures of Hulk, Ahmed Musa and Bastos have given the clubs money to spend. Therefore, we take a look at last season’s top six as well as this summer’s big spenders from Rubin Kazan.
Zenit St. Petersburg
The St. Petersburg outfit started the summer of by selling Hulk, their highest profile star. Despite the departure of the Brazilian, Zenit have been relatively quiet this summer, signing only Robert Mak from PAOK and Guiliano from Gremio. In fact, the majority of rumours surrounding the club have been about the possible departures of Ezequiel Garay and Axel Witsel. Garay is closing in on a move to Valencia, although Sovetsky Sport has reported that Chelsea are trying to snatch him as well, while Witsel is closing in on a move to Italian powerhouse Juventus. Zenit head coach Mircea Lucescu has already confirmed talks with the two clubs. Nicolas Lombaerts’ agent is furthermore still working on a move back to Benelux for the defender, where Anderlecht seems like the most realistic option. Last but not least midfielder Aleksandr Ryazantsev has been demoted to Zenit-2, and he is therefore expected to leave the club as well.
The list of possible additions to the squad is relatively short. Lucescu has however admitted that he would like to add two Russian players to the squad, and one of them could be Amkar goalkeeper Aleksandr Selikhov. Another is Rostov’s central defender Ivan Novoseltsev, who is also a part of the national team.
CSKA Moscow
Just like Zenit, CSKA have been surprisingly quiet this summer. The Army Men have brought in Lacina Traoré on loan from Monaco and Aleksey Ionov on loan from Dinamo Moscow, but they have also said goodbye to several first team players, most significantly Ahmed Musa.
With the departure of Musa, CSKA have money to spend, and if the first few rounds of the RFPL has taught us anything, it is that the Red-Blues desperately needs a new striker. At the moment Traoré and Carlos Strandberg are the only options, and neither of them have impressed in Leonid Slutsky’s system. The rumours have however been few and far apart, and currently it doesn’t seems that CSKA will sign anyone.
Rubin Kazan
Rubin have been by far the most active club this summer. The Tatars have signed nine players this summer for a total fee of €40 million. It is therefore unlikely that Rubin will bring in any new players over the next 36 hours. They are however actively seeking to cut the wage budget, and get rid of some of the highly paid players who are currently spending their time with the second team.
Yann M’Vila played on loan at Sunderland last season, and the French enforcer has been trying to leave Rubin for two years now without it turning into a permanent deal. M’Vila is banned from the first team, and unless he manages to find a club before the window closes, he’ll have to go on loan to Rubin’s farm club Neftekhimik in the Russian second tier.
The same fate awaits former Rennes defender Chris Mavinga, who is currently training alone together with M’Vila, but he seems close to joining Sheffield Wednesday, although this hasn’t been confirmed yet.
https://twitter.com/Chris_Mavinga/status/769913675008372737
Another former profile who looks set to leave Rubin is Georgian defender Solomon Kvirkvelia. He impressed widely during Rubin’s Europa League campaign last season, but isn’t one of Javi Gracia’s favourites, which he recently spoke out about.
Lokomotiv Moscow
Due to the chaos surrounding Olga Smorodskaya and the presidential change at the club Lokomotiv have been passive in this summer’s transfer market. The Railroaders have promoted youngster Dmitry Barinov to the first team and made Delvin N’Dinga’s loan permanent, while they have said goodbye to Jan Durica, Moubarak Boussoufa, Aleksandr Sheshukov, Maksim Grigoriev and Anton Kochenkov.
On a more positive note, Lokomotiv have managed to extend Vedran Corluka’s contract, thus keeping him in Moscow for at least another season, while they have also been able to turn down Spartak’s and Zenit’s approaches for highly rated youngster Aleksey Miranchuk.
Despite the obvious needs in the squad, Lokomotiv remain relatively quiet, although they have been linked with Terek Grozny defender Andrey Semenov, Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero, and Red Star winger Aleksandar Katai within the last few days. The Railroaders are also said to be interested in Anzhi striker Yannick Boli and Rubin striker Igor Portnyagin.
Spartak Moscow
After signing central defender Mauricio on loan from Lazio yesterday, the Red-Whites seem to be done. Spartak have signed four new players, and the priority now should be to get rid of a couple of players who don’t fit into head coach Massimo Carrera’s style.
Sergey Bryzgalov, Kirill Kombarov and Aleksandr Zotov have already left the club this summer, and right back Sergey Parshivlyuk is likely to be the next to follow them out the door. He has already been spotted in a hospital in Krasnodar, and is expected to sign with FC Krasnodar very soon.
Central defenders Salvatore Bocchetti and Sardar Tasci could also be about to leave the club, with the latter in particular being keen on leaving as soon as possible. Turkey is the most likely destination for the German defender, who played on loan at Bayern Munich last season. Paraguay striker Lorenzo Melgarejo is also likely to leave, if Spartak can find someone who is willing to reimburse just a fraction of the €4.5 million Myaso paid for him last winter. Melgarejo has started on the bench in all of Spartak’s games this season.
FC Krasnodar
As usual, Krasnodar have been relatively quiet this summer. The Bulls have made the loans of Stanislav Kritsyuk and Charles Kaboré permanent, while also signing Marat Izmailov and Naldo. They have however lost both Ragnar Sigurdsson and Stefan Strandberg, and are therefore in desperate need of new central defenders, which they are also aware of. Speaking to Championat club owner Sergey Galitsky revealed that they were in the market for a Russian defender, but also admitted that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations made it difficult for them to afford a top player.
They are as mentioned earlier close to signing Spartak defender Parshivlyuk who fits Galitsky’s description perfectly. They have also been reported interested in Dinamo Kyiv midfielder Younes Belanda who could join them on loan.
FC Rostov
After qualifying for the Champions League group stage and selling Angolan central defender Bastos to Lazio, Rostov are suddenly a rich club compared to what they are used to. And that’s good news, because Rostov really needs to strengthen their squad as they have lost several of the players who helped them achieve last season’s sensational second place.
Rostov aren’t surrounded by a lot of rumours at the moment though, and time is slowly running out for the southern side. One addition however could be Spartak defender Vladimir Granat, who is out in the cold in Moscow, and has previously played on loan at Rostov. If Rostov end up losing Novoseltsev, Granat would be an obvious candidate to replace him.
Other possible additions to the squad could be Timofey Margasov who left the club after last season, but is yet to find a new one, as well as Zenit midfielder Pavel Mogilevets who played on loan last season with big success.
The transfer window closes at midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. We at RFN will guide you through deadline day on both our website and on Twitter. Stay tuned!
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