CSKA goaltender Igor Akinfeev to back-up Iker Casillas? That sounds ... weird.
One item that was reported earlier in the week which we failed to pass on was rumors of CSKA Moskva’s brightest stars possibly raided by Real Madrid. It’s an interesting thought, which you can find here – the justification for which is Real Madrid scouts being in Moskva. The article speculates that Madrid could be interested in goalie Igor Akinfeev, attacking midfielder Alan Dagoev, and young striker Tomas Necid.
There are some huge red flags in this rumor’s reporting. First, Real Madrid have scouts everywhere. Their network of formal and informal scouts includes ex-players, relatives of club personnel in addition to the technical director’s legitimate scouting staff. Those deep roster of “scouts” means that Real Madrid could be in play for hundreds of players at any time, if mere presence in a city is the standard.
However, the article says Russian papers are reporting fees are to be discussed. That seems to hint at more than mere attendance, so we should give the article more credit right? Perhaps, except the names being discussed make little sense. First, realize that all of Akinfeev, Dagoev, and Necid are going to be extremely expensive. That’s a work class goalie and two of CSKA’s three best young attackers. The combined total for the three could be around €30 million, maybe?
We have all gotten used to Real Madrid having bottomless pockets, and while it is true they can find money in places other clubs can’t imagine, even they have limits. They essentially ask for money (but it from the government or from their club’s investors), get it, and then have to work within that budget. This season’s budget was such that they eventually had to sell Klass-Jan Huntelaar, Wesley Sneijder, and Arjen Robben to balance their books.
In January, they may have new numbers to work with, making buying the CSKA stars possible, but if you had to consider the positions Madrid are least likely to address, goaltender and attacking players would be the top of the list.
Clubs don’t always make decisions that make sense, so Real Madrid could legitimately be looking at these CSKA players. I doubt it. I don’t know if this rumor is coming from the lips of agents or the fingertips of bored writers, but it doesn’t hold up when scrutinized by common sense.
The rumor does, however, speak to something brought up in the last edition of Russian Football Now’s Podcast: CSKA’s young attackers are going to be sought-after by other clubs, and their ability to get top prices and convert the profits into new players will be critical to this club’s ability to maintain the level of excellence they’ve come to expect.
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