Adaptation difficulties: why expensive legionnaires are inferior to young Russians in the RPL

The incredible spending of top clubs

The last transfer window in Russian football turned out to be unexpectedly eventful, in which very large amounts often appeared. Fans have already become accustomed to the fact that even domestic top clubs are forced to save and cannot afford to give tens of millions of euros for football, but several teams decided to seriously strengthen their squad in the summer.

Krasnodar significantly updated the roster for the Champions League debut, signing a contract with eight newcomers at once and spending more than € 30 million (according to Transfermarkt). “Zenith” after the sale of Leandro Paredes to “PSG” allowed himself the acquisition of Malcom for € 40 million and thereby repeated his transfer record. For the same amount, Axel Witsel was bought in 2012.

The leading Moscow clubs have seriously strengthened. Spartak started the construction of a new team after the start of the season, and Dynamo, returning under the wing of VTB, was able to spend more than € 35 million. Even the most avaricious CSKA found almost € 16 million to buy back the rights to Nikola Vlasic. In turn, Lokomotiv gave € 12 million to save Grzegorz Krychowiak.

Legionnaire injuries and difficult adaptation

In total, RPL clubs spent about € 240 million in summer, which was the third result in the history of the Russian championship. More domestic teams spent only in financially prosperous 2012 and 2014. But many expensive transfers have not paid off. The most striking example of this negative trend was the already mentioned Malkom.

The purchase of the Zenit footballer from Barcelona has become perhaps the main event of the summer in the RPL. It was assumed that the Brazilian would quickly begin to work out the money spent on him, as it once happened to the Hulk, but in reality he spent only a couple of matches for the Petersburgers and was injured. At first it was reported that Malcolm would return to duty after conservative treatment, but as a result he needed surgery. By the end of the year, the footballer will not help the team of Sergei Semak.

Remy Cabella fell into a similar situation. Krasnodar acquired the Frenchman for € 12 million, the club hoped that an experienced footballer who could play several positions at once would immediately become the new leader of the team and replace Mauricio Pereira as a playmaker. But the newcomer immediately suffered a severe knee injury. He will return to duty only in the new year, while in March Cabella will turn 30 years old.

In general, strengthening under the Champions League “Krasnodar” did not help. Murad Musayev’s wards went to Porto, but lost to Olympiacos in the playoff round, and then suffered two defeats in the Europa League. Legionnaires needed time to play and adapt to the RPL, and so far only Tonni de Villena has become indispensable for the "southerners" of expensive foreigners.

They did not immediately manage to integrate into the composition of expensive beginners in Spartak. In particular, the red and white laid out a record for themselves € 18 million for Guus Thiel, but he still can not really prove himself. It got to the point that Domenico Tedesco, who replaced Oleg Kononov, put the Dutchman on the bench and directly told reporters that it made no sense to him how much this or that football player cost.

The same applies to Alex Kral (€ 12 million), who in the first matches looked like an extra link in the construction of Spartak. But under Tedesco, the Czech had a couple of good matches and managed to reduce the degree of criticism directed at him.

Did not help large-scale purchase and Dynamo. In terms of total spending, blue and white in summer took third place after Zenit and Spartak, but in the real standings after the first round they occupy the 13th line and fight for survival. At the same time, the two most expensive team newcomers, Maximilian Philip and Clinton N'Zhye, practically do not manifest themselves in any way.

The capital club paid a record € 20 million for the German, and in the first two matches he even scored goals, but it quickly became clear that Philip was not the clean forward that the team needed so much. As a result, on the last day before closing the transfer window, blue and white had to be rented from Ufa by Sylvester Igbun. Maximilian himself did not score after that and even ended up on the bench. Even more modest were the performance of N'Zhye, for whom Dynamo paid € 6 million, - 9 games, 1 goal.

Of course, partly the current trend can be explained by a coincidence, because some football players immediately suffered serious injuries, while others simply did not have time to adapt. But for now, it remains to be noted that even tens of millions of euros spent on the transfer market will not help to give quick results neither in European competitions, nor in the RPL.

Bright game of young people and the desire of clubs to earn

At the same time, in the RPL this season, a whole scattering of young soccer players began to play, who are either pupils of their clubs, or were acquired for minimal money. So, the debut call to the Russian national team was received by Ufa midfielder Daniil Fomin. In the summer, the Bashkortostans bought the rights to a football player from Krasnodar for € 280 thousand, and the 22-year-old player immediately turned into one of the club’s leaders. It is very likely that Fomin will soon become the next performer, whose sale Ufa will be able to make good money.

And next to Fomin, another pupil of Krasnodar, Artyom Golubev, and local talent Danila Emelyanov, who are also not deprived of playing practice, make themselves known. Daniil Krugovoy, on the other hand, the Bashkortostans already managed to sell to Zenit for € 2 million and take it back on loan before the end of the season.

Several young footballers played in Rubin, both Russians and Georgians. And while the “Ruby” is located just two points from sixth place. In richer times for Russian football, Kazan might not have saved money, and instead of young guys they would have taken several expensive legionnaires, but life forces them to save every penny and try to earn money on football players, as Ufa already does.

However, it cannot be said that youth in the current season manifests itself only in modest teams. For example, in Spartak, with the arrival of Tedesco, Nail Umyarov finally registered as the basis. It is curious that the 19-year-old pupil of Chertanovo, for whom the red-and-white paid the minimum money, plays in the base zone next to the 21-year-old Kral (€ 12 million) and looks no worse than a Czech.

Still forced to trust the young and in CSKA. For example, the 20-year-old Diveev, acquired just from Ufa, and the 17-year-old Vadim Karpov started playing at the center of the army’s defense on an ongoing basis. All this does not prevent the red and blue from fighting for medals. Finally, one cannot fail to mention one of the best scorers of the current season, Alexander Sobolev, who at 22 years old also managed to get a call to the national team.

About "Krasnodar" you can not talk at all. Everyone is accustomed to the fact that Matvey Safonov and Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov are the main players of the team. Moreover, Suleymanov began to regularly enter the field from the first minutes only this season and with 11 points for performance he is the best footballer of Southerners. Cabella, Villena, Younes Namli and Marcus Berg scored the same amount.

It is curious that such a paradoxical situation with expensive foreigners and young talented football players occurred at the moment when a new limit on legionnaires was announced. Many experts and fans reacted to its actual tightening not in the best way and expressed concern that it would negatively affect the RPL level and the competitiveness of Russian teams in European competitions.

However, the first round of this season showed that the presence of expensive foreigners is not always a panacea. At the same time, under the conditions of the limit, many young players are able to reveal themselves.

Of course, in many respects the active trust from clubs on the part of them is associated with budget cuts and, as already mentioned, a logical and healthy desire to make money on football players, which can only be welcomed. And this practice sometimes justifies itself far more than serious spending on the transfer market.