In new realities: how RPL clubs adapted to restrictions and successfully spent the summer transfer window

The summer transfer window threatened to turn out to be extremely difficult for Russian clubs, because for the first time they had to spend it completely under restrictions.

Further complicating life was FIFA's permission for legionnaires to suspend their contracts until the summer of 2023.

This right was eventually used by about two dozen people.

However, in general, domestic teams coped with the tasks facing them and managed to organize work in difficult conditions.

Indicative statistics: in total they spent more than in winter - almost €85 million versus €81 million. Last summer, a more impressive amount was spent on strengthening - €125 million, but then Lokomotiv alone gave €30 million, and Zenit Acquired by Claudinho for €12 million.

The suspension from European competitions and the loss of the opportunity to earn money by participating in them have not yet forced the giants to save.

Zenit gave €8 million, Dynamo - €10.2 million, Krasnodar - €6.07 million, CSKA - €12 million, Lokomotiv - €13.2 million, Spartak — €9.60 million

At the same time, many managed to gain a lot on sales despite the difficulties in conducting transactions with foreign clubs: Dynamo - €5.03 million, Krasnodar - €5.86 million, CSKA - €7.69 million, Lokomotiv - €13 million, Spartak - €9.6 million. And Sochi and Krylya Sovetov completely went into plus.

So, according to the results of the transfer window, the southerners earned €6 million more than they spent.

Even for the most wasteful teams, the transfer balance turned out to be not very unprofitable.

An exception is Zenit, which gave €8 million to Sochi for Rodrigao and Mateo Cassierra and received less than a million for Kirill Kravtsov.

But even in such conditions, domestic giants managed to strengthen their problematic positions.

Petersburgers, in addition to the two mentioned performers, signed Zelimkhan Bakaev as a free agent and rented the Brazilians Gustavo Mantuan and Ivan for the future.

Dynamo, left without a number of leading legionnaires, replaced them with other foreigners.

The line of defense was strengthened by young Latin Americans Nicolas Marichal and Roberto Fernandez, as well as Eli Das, who played almost 50 matches for the Israeli national team.

The support zone was staffed by another footballer from this country, Eden Karzev and Matthias Normann.

Particularly noteworthy was the arrival of the latter, the rights to which still belong to Rostov.

Back in the spring, he stated that he did not want to come to Russia, but in the last days of the transfer window, he agreed to return despite the ban on being called up to the Norwegian national team that immediately took effect.

It is possible that other athletes from European countries will follow his example in the future, especially if they are offered good conditions.

CSKA also conducted an active transfer campaign, traditionally successfully working in the Latin American market.

So, it was possible to buy out the contract of one of the team leaders Jorge Carrascal, to acquire the defensive midfielder Victor Mendez and the central defender Willian Roshu, and also to rent the left-back Moises.

Finally, Sasha Zdjelar and Milan Gaich arrived from Serbia.

Another metropolitan team, Lokomotiv, strengthened the defense with Mario Mitai, Ivan Kuzmichev and Lukas Fasson, who, unfortunately, received a severe knee injury and was out of action for six months, the attack line - Marco Rakognats and Ivan Ignatiev.

And just a few hours before the window closed, Bragantino bought winger Pedrinho for €3.5 million.

"Spartak" was limited to point gain.

With the exception of Christopher Martins Pereira bought from Young Boys for €6.4 million, the best assistant of the last RPL season Anton Zinkovsky, defenders with extensive experience playing in the RPL Matsey Rybus and Miha Mevlya, as well as forward Keita Balde.

The agreement with the Senegalese, as in the situation with Norman, turned out to be a pleasant surprise, because the Barcelona graduate had previously defended the colors of such teams as Monaco and Lazio, and even scored 16 goals for the Romans in the 2016/17 Serie A draw.

Although in recent years the football player has not demonstrated similar performance, his skill is still able to help Muscovites.

However, for the most part, clubs now tend to invite not experienced masters, but young performers, who can be made money in the near future.

Even the giants no longer allow themselves to overpay for older players and behave much more sensibly.

For example, the mentioned Mantuan, Marichal, Fernandez, Mendez, Fasson and others are not even 23 yet.

If they rely on older players, then, as a rule, they limit themselves to renting or signing contracts with free agents, as in the cases of Balde, Mevley, Daza and Moises.

If we are talking specifically about legionnaires, then the vector has shifted as expected towards the representatives of Latin America and Africa.

Of the European countries, there was predictably no equal to Serbia, which delegated seven athletes to the RPL, two of which are Montenegrins (Rakognac and newcomer Torpedo Bojan Roganovich).

If earlier the Balkan market was mainly studied by not the most wealthy teams, now it is done by the giants, for example, CSKA, which signed Zdjelar and Gaych.

However, contacts with colleagues from Western and Central Europe were not interrupted either.

A total of about a couple of dozen transactions were made with them.

The most notable was the sale from Lokomotiv to French Nice for €12m + €2m bonuses from Alexis Beck-Beck.

This transfer demonstrated that representatives of the leading championships of the Old World are still willing to pay for players from Russia despite the difficulties with transactions.

It was almost possible to agree even on the transfer of Arsen Zakharyan from Dynamo to Chelsea, but the parties did not manage to find an option for transferring money in a few days.

However, there is no doubt that by the next transfer window, clubs will find a way out and be able to earn more.

And some have already succeeded, for example, CSKA, which sold Yaku Biyola and Emil Bohinen to Italy for a total of € 7.25 million, although they had the right to use FIFA's permission.

Many teams quickly adapted to the new requirements and managed to get around it by signing additional agreements.

And even if foreign players went on loan, they received money for them.

Thus, Dynamo earned €3.5 million from its leading midfielders Sebastian Szymanski and Nicola Moro.