Personnel cold: only Zenit and Spartak intensively strengthen in winter

Zenit St. Petersburg and Spartak Moscow are practically the only RPL clubs that are actively reinforcing themselves this winter. They stand out not only for the number of transfers that have already taken place and are likely to take place, but also for their financial scale, according to media estimates. The rest of the top division clubs are not showing any noticeable activity on the transfer market.

"Spartak

Spartak was the most active RPL club on the transfer market last January. And this was at a time of reshuffling at the head of the sports unit. Finally, a new sporting director was officially appointed - it was Spaniard Francis Cahigao. He has worked as a scout for Arsenal London for more than 20 years, including as head of the international scouting department of the English club. Last year he held a similar position at Galatasaray Istanbul.

Spartak's previous sporting director, Portuguese Tomas Amaral, left his post back in November. It is still unknown what is the extent of Cahigao's involvement in the current transfers, as rumors of negotiations on many of them were going on even before his appointment.

In particular, goalkeeper Ilya Pomazun, whose official signing took place on February 2. The 28-year-old goalkeeper transferred from CSKA Moscow, the Red-Whites' most fundamental rival.

Ilya has been in the system of the Army club since the age of 16, but played only four matches for him in the RPL, in 2020-2024 almost all the time spent on loan in Ekaterinburg's Ural, where he gained widespread popularity at the Premier League level. Last spring, after Ural's relegation from the RPL, the goalkeeper returned to CSKA and began to prepare for the current season.

But in September he was suspended from training. The reason for this was his interview with journalist Nobel Arustamyan's YouTube channel, in which Pomazun did not rule out his move to Spartak if there was a proper offer. As a result, he was out of practice until winter. And now he is moving to the ranks of the Red-Whites, who a little earlier terminated the contract with their longtime goalkeeper Alexander Selikhov.

Selikhov joined Spartak at the end of 2016, becoming a Russian champion six months later as a backup goalkeeper. He was mostly a second number under Artem Rebrov and Aleksandr Maksimenko thereafter, but he forced them out of the lineup for a while on several occasions, having played some standout matches in the RPL and European Cups. Several times he was out for long periods of time due to injuries, which partly predetermined the loss of competition for Maksimenko.

- The decision to go to Spartak is a risky one for Pomazun," Anzor Kavazashvili, a former goalkeeper for the Red-Whites and the USSR national team, shared his opinion with Izvestia. - Even though Maksimenko has been the team's main goalkeeper for many years and there are no special questions about him, it will be very hard for Ilya to win back the No. 1 spot. And it would be better for him to go to another club. Maybe a weaker one, but where he would definitely have as much game practice as Ural gave him.

The return of Quincy Promes to Spartak could be an even more high-profile event. Who is still in the UAE, where he was stuck last winter when he was unable to fly with the Moscow club from the training camp. It happened because of criminal prosecution in connection with a traffic accident in the Emirates.

And further local authorities did not let him out of the country because of a request from the Netherlands, where Promes was convicted in cases of distribution of a large batch of drugs and a stabbing with one of his relatives.

Due to the inability to involve Quincy in their matches, Spartak terminated his contract with him last year. And now Promes plays in the second league of the UAE championship for the local club United. But recently he attended a friendly match of the Red-Whites holding a training camp in the Emirates, after which he told the Russian media about his desire to return to his former team.

Spartak management have not commented on the possibility of Promes' return, but Kahigao and Spartak general director Oleg Malyshev attended one of United's matches, which is seen by many as a signal that negotiations with Quincy are possible if he is allowed to leave the UAE for Russia.

- "It has already been discussed many times that it's not a good reputation story to accept Promes in Russia after all his criminal offenses," said former Spartak owner Andrey Chervichenko in a conversation with Izvestia. - With all due respect to Quincy's former merits, he still needs to respect himself. He was convicted in the Netherlands not on political articles, but on a very nasty criminal offense. Besides, I have said many times that his purely soccer form raises questions. The guy is already 33 years old, and he is unlikely to show what he showed in his best years. To be honest, even his previous return to Spartak at the beginning of 2020 seemed inappropriate to me. And after his downtime last year, it's not as if the Red-Whites didn't get a downed flyer at all.

Meanwhile, Spartak are credited with several possible transfers from Europe and South America. In particular, it's not the first week of negotiations on the transfer of Serbian national team and Italian Torino striker Aleksandar Ilic for €20 million, as well as Argentine forward Pablo Solari from River Plate for €11 million.

Most of the potential transfers are attributed to head coach Dejan Stankovic, but in recent days the media has already reported on the first possible transfer involving Kahigao - we are talking about Trinidadian striker Levi Garcia of Greek AEK. It is assumed that €20 million will also be paid for him.

Spartak have also terminated contracts with players acquired under two past sporting directors - Paul Ashworth and Tomas Amaral. We are talking about striker Shamar Nicholson, defender Tomas Tavares and midfielder Willian Jose. All three have been at Spartak for less than three years, with Jose leaving after six months with the Red and Whites.

There are also rumors of a move to Lokomotiv or Khimki for midfielder Anton Zinkovskiy, who lost his place in the lineup under Stankovic. However, he appeared in the RPL Winter Cup match against Krasnodar (3-3) and scored a goal, which may give him a chance to play for Spartak again in the spring.

"Zenit".

In January, the St. Petersburg club celebrated the acquisition of star midfielder Luis Henrique from Brazilian Botafogo for an impressive sum of more than €30 million. However, this money must be offset by two transfers of other Brazilians in the opposite direction - striker Arthur, who has already left, and midfielder Wendel, who will leave in the summer.

In addition, another iconic Brazilian of recent years, Claudinho, followed to Qatar's Al Sadd. Thus, Zenit almost completely left the main group of Brazilians, who brought him victories in the Russian championships of the previous four seasons - Malcom, Claudinho, Wendel. Only Douglas Santos remained at the club. Malcom left for the Middle East back in the summer of 2023. However, the other day "Sport-Express" wrote about his possible return to St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, a number of media outlets have been reporting that Zenit are ready to pay €20 million to Portuguese Braga for Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Salazar and €30 million to Brazilian Flamenco for Brazilian right-back Wesley Franso. Zenit have lost two Russians to serious injuries in the last six months - Sergei Volkov in the summer and Vyacheslav Karavaev this winter.

- The St. Petersburg club is going for very risky acquisitions, but they have proven many times that they are good at working in the Latin American market," former Zenit head coach Anatoly Byshovets told Izvestia. - It is obvious that the team wants to win a seventh consecutive championship at any cost on the centenary of its foundation. And the management will do everything for success. It's a big responsibility for head coach Sergei Semak, who will have to introduce star newcomers into the game on the fly. But in previous times it was possible to do it with Malcom, Claudinho and Wendel. So, if there are no unforeseen difficulties, it will work again, which makes Zenit the unqualified favorite in the spring fight for the championship.

The other clubs of the top division do not show high transfer activity. The signing of former Spartak striker Giorgi Melkadze by Akhmat Grozny, who was most successful in the RPL with Tambov and Sochi, is noteworthy. Dynamo Moscow sent their midfielder Vyacheslav Grulev on loan to Pari NN, where the young Krasnodar striker Alexander Koksharov also followed. And Rubin Kazan loaned their midfielder Alexander Lomovitsky to Fakel Voronezh.