ANZHI MAKHACHKALA owner Suleiman Kerimov has admitted that he got it wrong and has put the whole squad up for sale. Anzhi have failed to win any of their first four matches in the Russian league, despite spending more than £50m during the close season on players including Aleksandr Kokorin, Igor Denisov and Christopher Samba. The club's future was last night plunged in doubt after the billionaire owner admitted his mega-money project has failed. I'm so glad we got our money back on Samba the grizzly bear in football boots.
I wonder how he feels about it now? Samba believes in Anzhi success Published : 08 Jul 2013 Congolese defender Christopher Samba, who has returned to Russian Premier League side Anzhi Makhachkala after six months in England, has said he is confident his side can prosper when the new season gets underway next weekend. "The decision to return to Anzhi wasn't hard for me to take at all," Samba was quoted as saying by the club's press service. "Playing for Anzhi was one of the best periods in my career along with my experience with Blackburn Rovers." "I believe that in the new season we are capable of performing even better than we did last year. "Anzhi's current line-up is stronger than the club had last season. Besides, we are coached by one of the world's best managers." The 29-year-old international full back rejoined Anzhi by signing a four-year deal with the club from the capital of Russian republic of Dagestan after playing with Queens Park Rangers, who were relegated from the English Premier League last season. Local media reports said that Anzhi had paid QPR 11.6 million euros for Samba, who joined the club from Makhachkala for the first time in February 2012. The former Congo international team skipper added that he was happy to return to Anzhi. "In January I had to leave Anzhi because of my family problems," he said. "And I was really upset to leave the team. This time I brought my family with me to Russia to avoid similar problems in the future. Anzhi finished third in the Russian league last season and will play in the Europa League. During the summer break Anzhi also strengthened their line-up by signing Russian international skipper Igor Denisov from Zenit St Petersburg and Russian international forward Alexander Kokorin from Dynamo Moscow.
Not as daft as it might seem. To my best knowledge, there's no rules about joining or leaving the same clubs over a short period of time. I think they are specific in the number of clubs (3 in 1 year?) So why not?! Buy back for £1.2m with wages of £10k per week!
If that report is correct re the amount we got for him, it equates to about £10m, which would represent a loss of £2.5m for the deal. Not the way it was being sold to us at the time. Mind you he would fetch nowhere near that now.
All I can say Im glad we have already got out money. Either both were paid fully up front or both were done in instalments. Id hate to be owed £10m and for them to go out of business.
He was great the last time he played in England but was awful for us. His Fulham performance wasnt even pub league stuff.
Exactly. I doubt we will ever know for sure. Transparency rarely goes that far. As for Samba, I'm sure he'll find another dream move to the club he really really really always wanted to play for.
It works both ways hopefully mate. We probably didn't pay them in full when we had him. So in reality after the initial payments it would almost be like a call it quits kinda deal. Minus the wages of course.
