Zenit is no longer the most expensive. At least in one important part

It has long been noticed that in our championship the Russian backbone is fundamentally important for success. It is he who acts as the basis of stability, capable of protecting any team from the mood swings of the usually talented, but changeable legionnaires. How strong and strong the Russian backbone is, how competitive the team is – this is a regularity for the RPL.

Therefore, it makes sense to evaluate the clubs in our league from this point of view. For the criterion of strength, you can take the most understandable parameter – the transfer value. Yes, it is not perfect, because, in particular, it is inaccurate in assessing veterans, whose real influence is usually higher than the virtual value. Nevertheless, a more dispassionate metric is still impossible to come up with.

If we count at least five players, half of the squad, as the backbone, then the sum of five price tags – among Russian speakers and foreigners, respectively – will allow us to make two comparisons. First, within the team. Secondly, between teams.

With such an analysis, it turns out that two clubs stand apart in the RPL – where foreign players prevail over the Russians.

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In CSKA, the five foreigners (Ejuque, Carrascal, Medina, Biyol, Gajic) are estimated at almost 26 million euros. The Russian-speaking five (Diveev, Oblyakov, Zainutdinov, Mukhin, Kuchaev) is 21 million. Due to age, Akinfeev, whose influence is immense, is not among the most expensive, but the trend is nevertheless noticeable: the army team is increasingly relying on legionnaires.

Even more expressive picture in “Zenith”. The Russian five (Kuzyaev, Karavaev, Bakaev, Chistyakov, Sergeev) is estimated at 28 million, and the foreign one (Malcolm, Barrios, Wendel, Claudinho, Douglas Santos) – at 95 million. The difference is more than three times! It is difficult to say whether teams with such a bias have happened before in our championship. Is that the same “Zenith” of the times of the Hulk, Witsel and Garay. Although he won very little.

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Curiously, it was the army team and Petersburgers, as the most titled clubs of the 21st century, who most fully expressed with their practice that very rule about the need for a Russian backbone. But now, it turns out, these two are going against their own recipe for success.

And in all other clubs today the Russian-speaking part outweighs. Maybe not by much, but still.

So, in Sochi, which should be recognized as the most economical among the leaders, foreigners (Rodrigo, Angban, Noboa, Drkusic, Miladinovic) are estimated at 9 million, and Russians (Yusupov, Tsallagov, Terekhov, Margasov, Zaika) – at 9, 8 million

In Krasnodar, the price ratio is as follows: 23 million (Cordoba, Ramirez, Cayo, Olusegun, Okoronkovo) to 29 million (Safonov, Spertsyan, Sorokin, Chernov, Ionov).

Similar figures are added up in Lokomotiv: 23.5 million (Izidor, Kerk, Kamano, Edvay, Beka-Beka) to 29 million (Barinov, Zhemaletdinov, Miranchuk, Maradishvili, Magkeev).

And in Spartak, the picture is similar: 26 million (Promes, Nicholson, Martins, Mozes, Rybus) to 29.5 million (Jikia, Sobolev, Zobnin, Umyarov, Khlusevich).

Only in Dynamo the amounts are slightly higher: 35 million (Szymanski, Moreau, Balbuena, Laxalt, Varela) by 43 million (Zakharyan, Fomin, Tyukavin, Smolov, Makarov).

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The other day, a member of the board of directors of Dynamo, Dmitry Gafin, said that the Russian backbone of his club is the first in the RPL in terms of value. And, as we see, the appeal to specific figures confirms this thesis.

Let’s put the scores together. The top five clubs with the most expensive Russians today look like this: Dynamo – 43 million, Spartak – 29.5 million, Krasnodar and Lokomotiv – 29 million each, Zenit – 28 million.

So the usual judgment that everything we have at Zenith is the most expensive, in this case, fails. In terms of the cost of the Russian backbone, the St. Petersburg club today is not the first, not the second, and not even the third.

Although the performance of four of the mentioned clubs differ very conditionally. Only Dynamo noticeably outperforms everyone. And one of the intrigues of the upcoming season is how the long-known rule will work.