FC Krasnodar and PFC Sochi continue to prepare for the new season 2023/24

Will play at least four times with Dynamo

The Bulls are finishing their vacation. Meanwhile, the team continues to change. Recently, the club announced the departure of fullback Evgeny Chernov. The football player ended the season on loan from Rostov, and now he has signed a full-fledged contract with his neighbors. Chernov became a Krasnodar player in the fall of 2020. In July 2022, he was rented by Rostov until the end of the last season. During his time with the Bulls, the defender managed to play 36 matches without scoring.

The club also officially announced that it had agreed with Torpedo all the details of the transfer to the capital club of Irakli Manelov. The bulls will have the right to buy back the player. For the previous half-season, a graduate of the Black-and-Green Academy played in the Tula Arsenal on loan. Manelov played 25 matches for the main team of the “townspeople”, scored one goal and made one assist.

Unexpectedly, it became known that Junior Alonso will continue his performance in Krasnodar. Earlier, the player himself said that he would leave the team. Diego Serrati, the agent of the Paraguayan, said that his client will remain at Krasnodar for the next season. Alonso joined the Citizens in January 2022. In March, the footballer returned to his previous club, Atlético Mineiro, on a one-year loan. Last season, the Paraguayan played for the “citizens” nineteen matches in all competitions, in which he scored one goal. Portal Transfermarkt evaluates the player at seven million euros. His contract with the Bulls runs until June 30, 2025.

Several media reported that Krasnodar is going to extend the contract with Kayo. The current agreement with the Brazilian is valid until June 30, 2024. But the club intends to keep the player in the team and will soon offer him a new contract. It is reported that the club is counting on the Brazilian, no one is thinking about selling him, although such rumors have appeared. The coaching staff is also pleased with the player and makes a bet on him. For how long Kayo can stay with the Black-and-Greens, there is no information yet. Krasnodar bought Cayo from the Portuguese club Santa Clara for three million euros in 2019. Then the contract was signed for a period of five years. Now the central defender is a stable base player. The transfer price of Cayo is two million euros.

Media reports that Krasnodar want to sign Maccabi defender Shakhar Pivnya. The contract of the 27-year-old football player with the club from Tel Aviv is valid until the summer of 2024. Last season, the defender participated in twenty matches and gave a productive pass. Piven was born in Russia. He has been playing for Maccabi since 2018, where he moved from Ashdod. It is reported that Ural is also interested in the player, but the Israelis will not hesitate to part with the player.

The Bulls also want to sign 26-year-old Diego Valoes from Atlético Talleres. President of the Argentine club Andres Fassi announced the interest in the striker from the “citizens”. But at the same time, he noticed that while the “bulls” offer a very small price for the player. Valoes made 17 appearances for Talleres last season, scoring two goals and making six assists. The transfer fee of the player is estimated at five million euros.

Rumors continue to circulate about the transition to European clubs Eduard Spertsyan. Italian media report that local Sassuolo, Inter, Fiorentina, as well as Ajax Amsterdam, Borussia Mönchengladbach and British Manchester City are interested in the midfielder of the Armenian national team and the pupil of the Bulls. The problem is the price of a football player. Krasnodar wants eighteen million euros for Spertsyan. The same Ajax is ready to pay nine million euros for him. Portal Transfermarkt evaluates the player at twelve million euros. Meanwhile, the footballer himself got married the other day. The wedding went to Pyatigorsk. Spertsyan’s chosen one was a relative of the former Sochi and Tambov midfielder Alexander Karapetyan.

Media reports that Roma wanted to sign Matvey Safonov in the current summer transfer window. The club, which is now headed by Jose Mourinho, was ready to enter into negotiations with Krasnodar, but the American owners of Roma imposed a ban on negotiations. The reason is the political situation. At the moment, Safonov is the most expensive player in Krasnodar. Pupil “bulls” is estimated at sixteen million euros.

Meanwhile, the Russian Premier League published on its website a preliminary calendar for the 2023/24 season. According to it, the matches of the first round will be held on July 21-23. The first rival of the Bulls in the new season will be Dynamo. The game will take place in Moscow. A week later, the “citizens” will play their first home match. Sochi will come to visit them. With the champions of Russia, “Zenith”, at home, the “bulls” will play in the 24th round on April 12-14, 2024. The championship will end on May 25. At the finish line, the “citizens” will again play with “Dynamo”, but already at home. The exact dates and times of the matches will be determined later.

The rivals of Krasnodar in the group in the Cup also became known, on June 24, the draw for the group stage (“Ways” of the Russian Premier League) took place in Moscow. According to its results, Krasnodar got into group D, where the metropolitan Spartak and Dynamo, as well as Pari Nizhny Novgorod, became its rivals. At the group stage, the teams will play two matches with each other. The winners of the first and second places in the group will advance to the playoffs of the Way of the Russian Premier League, the third team will go to the playoffs of the Way of Regions, and the fourth will leave the tournament.

Changed protection

A major restructuring is taking place in Sochi. Immediately after the end of the 2022/23 season, the club announced the departure of Joaozinho, Ibragim Tsallagov and Soslan Dzhanaev.

“Kurortniki” have already made a number of high-profile acquisitions. First of all, the composition of “Sochi” was replenished by a pupil of “Krasnodar” Vyacheslav Litvinov. Midfielder Martin Kramaric also joined the Bars. The Slovenian joined the club as a free agent. The last club of the footballer was Bravo Ljubljana. For him, Martin played 109 matches and scored 34 points (23 + 11) according to the “goal + pass” scheme.

Yuri Medvedev became another defender of the “resorts”. The player also joined the club as a free agent. The last club of the newcomer was the Slovak Slovan Bratislava. Medvedev has been playing for him for five years since 2018. There he played 120 matches, became the champion of Slovakia five times and won the National Cup once. The contract in the 27-year-old football player was signed according to the “3 + 1” scheme, that is, he will play for three seasons, and then the agreement can be extended for a year at the mutual desire of the parties. It is noteworthy that Medvedev, an ethnic Russian native of Kazakhstan, will play in Sochi as a legionnaire from the Czech Republic.

Another newcomer of the “leopards” was a pupil of “Krasnodar” – striker Ivan Ignatiev. His last club was the capital’s Lokomotiv. For the Red-Greens, the striker played 27 matches, scored five goals and made two assists. Ignatiev also went to Sochi as a free agent. In recent years, the striker’s career has been on the decline. Perhaps this is Ignatiev’s last chance to restart it.

Another acquisition of Sochi was the twenty-year-old striker Yegor Totsky. He is a graduate of the Togliatti Academy named after Yuri Konoplev. In 2020, the football player moved to Wings of the Soviets, where he played for the youth team.

Perhaps the most interesting acquisition of Sochi so far has been the Brazilian defender Marcelo Alves. The player moved on loan with a priority right to buy. The last two seasons, Alves played for the Portuguese club Tondela. For this team, he played 51 matches and scored five points (4 + 1) in the “goal + pass” scheme.

Barça came out of vacation on the nineteenth of June. In the morning, the team underwent an in-depth medical examination, and in the evening they held their first training session. The training camp of Dmitry Khokhlov’s team will be held at the club’s base in Adler.

Last Sunday, June 25, Sochi played the first friendly match against Alania at home. Already in the third minute Vladikavkaz opened the scoring in the match. For a long time, Sochi could not create scoring chances, only in the 77th minute Timofey Shipunov equalized the score. Shifted from the right flank to the middle and just shot into the bottom corner of the goal. At the end of the match, the hosts snatched the victory. Joaozinho scored with a chic shot – 2: 1.

According to the preliminary schedule of the Russian Premier League calendar, Barsy will play the first match of the season at home against league debutant Baltika Kaliningrad. The Khokhlov team will play against the champion of the Russian Premier League at home in the eleventh round on October 6-8. In the Cup of Russia, the Sochi players got into group A. Their rivals were the capital’s CSKA, Akhmat from Grozny and Voronezh’s Fakel.