Sardar Azmoun @ Zenit St Petersburg | 2019

[Babak_Shirazi]

I think that is a bit unrealistic/unfair assessment though.

Napoli have had off field issues this year. The row with players and chairman de laurentiis, firing of ancelotti, etc. But gattusso has really stabilized them in recent weeks, they are now at least going to get europa league spot.

Realistically, this is probably the best offer azmoun will get. In bundesliga that I agree would be best fit, who could afford azmoun that wants him? Napoli will be paying between 25-30 mil EU for him, only german teams who pay that much on regular basis are Dortmund and Bayern. Dortmund were rumored to have interest, but went for Haaland instead, ending their interest in azmoun for sure. Besides those the only potential team would be Leipzig, who never really spend over 20 mil on a player (21 year old olmo from dinamo being the exception but his age and talent profile made that possible).

EPL would be the worst potential move imo. All the top 6 have good forwards, no need for azmoun to go ride some bench, or end up in a crappy ARJ situation. Only team that COULD be a decent fit if ancellotti wanted him, provided assurances, would be everton. But they have richarlison, calvert lewin, moise kean already and other places in team that need addressing more urgently.

In spain there has not ben any rumored interest, but are sevilla,valencia really a better team than napoli? In terms of the quality of their squads definitely not. Seeing Valencia get smashed by Atalanta in CL, Sevilla barely beat Romanian Cluj on away goals makes me think otherwise.

So that really leaves italy. A league that is improving a lot recently, many big players, etc. Napoli are one of the most historic clubs, who have had a ton of success recently with always finishing in CL places, pushing Juve, and being competitive in europe.

Just look at some of their players :Koulibaly, Manolas, Demme, Fabian Ruiz, Zielinski, Allan, Insigne, Callejon, Politano, Lozano, Mertens, etc. These are top class players, always rumored to be going to the top 5 teams in the world. Basically most of them are at that level or half a level lower.

Is azmoun really on a higher level than these players???? No way in hell. What is best about this move is that Milik the current CF, and Llorente the backup are both leaving, meaning azmoun will have automatic reality of getting a lot of minutes.

Azmoun has done well in counterattacking systems before. And btw, napolis counter attack and defensive tactics cannot be compared to a team like Zenit or TM...Look at the insanely high quality of their players! This season alone they have beat liverpool (first team to do so this year), timed them in Anfield, beat and tied a highly rated salzburg side(with minamino and haaland, etc) and now drawn with Barcelona, totally deserving to win.

If you watch their games, although gattusso has gone more defensive to stabilize the team, they still play out of the back very well, still maintaining high possession stats, etc.

I seriously dont think azmoun will get a better an offer than this. What teams are legitimately better in terms of players, history, recent CL exploits than napoli? None are realistically going to be in for azmoun.

For 25-30 mil I think this deal will get done and it will be the best team any iranian has played for since the Bayern team of Ali karimi.

Great analysis! Loved reading it and it makes perfect sense for Azmun to take the offer and go play for Napoli. Although i‘m desperataly waiting for one of our players to join the Bundesliga... in my opinion it‘s the best League at the moment and highly competitive. Always fun to watch, and our best players were playing here so we need more of that.

[Leicester City]

Russian Sources:

https://football24.ru/allnews/russia...ra-napoli.html

[Sly]

Although i‘m desperataly waiting for one of our players to join the Bundesliga... in my opinion it‘s the best League at the moment and highly competitive. Always fun to watch, and our best players were playing here so we need more of that.

No thanks. Bundesliga is the plague for our players. The discipline is good for them but their machine-like way of playing don't suit our technically gifted players and will only result in their demise, a la Ali Karimi. Our players are best made for La Liga. A league that makes a relatively recognized star out of an average player like Masoud Shojaei.

[RaginG Inferno]

No thanks. Bundesliga is the plague for our players. The discipline is good for them but their machine-like way of playing don't suit our technically gifted players and will only result in their demise, a la Ali Karimi. Our players are best made for La Liga. A league that makes a relatively recognized star out of an average player like Masoud Shojaei.

Karimi was stellar in the Bundesliga before his serious knee injury (after which he never was really the same).

[Sly]

Karimi was stellar in the Bundesliga before his serious knee injury (after which he never was really the same).

Still, ironically Karimi's best time in TM was when he was playing in the Persian Gulf league and in the UAE!

[Babak_Shirazi]

No thanks. Bundesliga is the plague for our players. The discipline is good for them but their machine-like way of playing don't suit our technically gifted players and will only result in their demise, a la Ali Karimi. Our players are best made for La Liga. A league that makes a relatively recognized star out of an average player like Masoud Shojaei.

Seeing our players join La Liga, Serie A or the Premier League would be nice too, but the German League is on fire. Just look at the standings this year, 5 teams have realistic chances to win the league title, while it‘s almost settled in the other top leagues. Just look at what Leipzig did, they beat the last years Championsleague runner up Tottenham 4:0 in total. Seeing him in Leipzig, Dortmund, Leverkusen or Bayern Munich would be a dream. But Napoli will also be definitely a good step up from his current team

[Sly]

Seeing our players join La Liga, Serie A or the Premier League would be nice too, but the German League is on fire. Just look at the standings this year, 5 teams have realistic chances to win the league title, while it‘s almost settled in the other top leagues. Just look at what Leipzig did, they beat the last years Championsleague runner up Tottenham 4:0 in total. Seeing him in Leipzig, Dortmund, Leverkusen or Bayern Munich would be a dream. But Napoli will also be definitely a good step up from his current team

That may be but still their style don't suit our players. I'm sure Azmoun would progress much much more in a league where he can be more free in the field than in Bundesliga where every step is dictated to him.

[inarsenewetrust]

azmoun would be a success in germany. But, his current profile makes a transfer there unlikely, and that is what people should consider when they say he should wait and move there over napoli.

We have to be realistic and honest. Azmoun will cost 25-30 mil EU right now. And there are teams willing to pay that.

Only Dortmund and Bayern in Germany pay that much for players. Bayern Have lewandowski, Dortmund have haaland. Azmoun is not a relevant option for these two.

Leipzig could, especially if they sell werner, but there is no indication they had/have interest, and still azmoun doesnt really fit their ideal age+price combo. His current wage is 3 million EU itself, with a transfer to new club he will likely be asking for as much or more money.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...alary-by-team/

just for comparision, here is a list of bundesliga average salaries per team. Leipzig sits at just 2.42 mil EU. If azmoun was to join he would immediately be one of if not the top earner, doesnt make much sense for them and would kind of tear up their whole wage structure.

Only other option I see in germany would be leverkusen, who could afford him, although he would be one of their record transfers. They were close to signing him in 2018, but deal fell through. They had official offer accepted by rostov. But now they have Volland, Alario as CFs and Bailey, Haavertz who play in that position regularly as well.

Plus is leverkusen a better team than napoli truly? Recent evidence from european competitions, domestic performances in the past few years suggests not.

When you weigh all this up it starts becoming clear that the best REALISTIC option for azmoun is napoli. Especialy if they are as interested in him as seems, they will put faith in him, not as much competition in CF spot with milik and llorente leaving.

[Iran_19]

Honestly I don't know why Bundesliga after almost two decades never trusted our players, yes we had some unsuccessful period with Mousavi, Yazdani, Pashazadeh, Khatibi, but Kia, Vahid, Bagheri, Daei, or even Azizi did pretty ok job to take a chance on more Iranians.
Germany can be a nice fit for our players, there are lots of Iranians there and the style of playing can be one of the best fits for Iranians.
Guys such as Kaveh, Azmoun, Jahanbakhsh, Taremi can easily shine or survive there.

Sent from my MAR-LX3A using Tapatalk

[PSGman#19]

Honestly I don't know why Bundesliga after almost two decades never trusted our players, yes we had some unsuccessful period with Mousavi, Yazdani, Pashazadeh, Khatibi, but Kia, Vahid, Bagheri, Daei, or even Azizi did pretty ok job to take a chance on more Iranians.
Germany can be a nice fit for our players, there are lots of Iranians there and the style of playing can be one of the best fits for Iranians.
Guys such as Kaveh, Azmoun, Jahanbakhsh, Taremi can easily shine or survive there.

Sent from my MAR-LX3A using Tapatalk

Because like most of the rest of the world, maro adam hesab nemikonan.

Between Daei, Mahdavikia.. era and now, there was litteraly a shitstorm on everything iranian. In the meantime only hajsafi played there and it was far from being a success (don't count Dejagah which is considered as german).

[PSGman#19]

We can also question :

- why Portugal was so slow to open his league to our players (litteraly they waited 8 years of CQ).
- why Spain didn't renew interest for our players after Shojaei/Nekounam
- why greece did a successful "one shot" with Ansarifard/Hajsafi/Shojaei but nothing after. The same with Russia

[Nokhodi]

We can also question :

- why Portugal was so slow to open his league to our players (litteraly they waited 8 years of CQ).
- why Spain didn't renew interest for our players after Shojaei/Nekounam
- why greece did a successful "one shot" with Ansarifard/Hajsafi/Shojaei but nothing after. The same with Russia

For players within Iran:

1 - financial restrictions make it really hard to get the transfers through. A club really has to want a player to make it happen.
2 - Iranian players make decent money in Iran, and most European clubs want our players dirt cheap or on free transfers.
3 - Poor agents.
4 - Players lack of motivation/laziness/fear.

For players outside of Iran:

1 - Poor agents (look at Ghodoos)
2 - Bad contracts (Look at Azmoun)
3 - Terrible advisers (again, look at Ghodoos)

[perspolis#1]

Because like most of the rest of the world, maro adam hesab nemikonan.

Between Daei, Mahdavikia.. era and now, there was litteraly a shitstorm on everything iranian. In the meantime only hajsafi played there and it was far from being a success (don't count Dejagah which is considered as german).

I mean there's also the fact that our clubs really try to take as much money as they can since they all owe money to foreign coaches....agents are thieves....etc

Or it could be as simple as the fact that countries that are football equals to us like Japan are able to ship more players consistently with less headsaches and the added incentive that there is a market for the club in Japan.

This is the same reason Iran isnt in FIFA. How much money could they make off Iranians when a lot of jerseys etc are pirated and fake

[PSGman#19]

I mean there's also the fact that our clubs really try to take as much money as they can since they all owe money to foreign coaches....agents are thieves....etc

Or it could be as simple as the fact that countries that are football equals to us like Japan are able to ship more players consistently with less headsaches and the added incentive that there is a market for the club in Japan.

This is the same reason Iran isnt in FIFA. How much money could they make off Iranians when a lot of jerseys etc are pirated and fake

Ok but we have a lot of players playing outside iran so they shouldn't have all these headaches to deal with non iranian clubs

[PSGman#19]

For players within Iran:

1 - financial restrictions make it really hard to get the transfers through. A club really has to want a player to make it happen.
2 - Iranian players make decent money in Iran, and most European clubs want our players dirt cheap or on free transfers.
3 - Poor agents.
4 - Players lack of motivation/laziness/fear.

For players outside of Iran:

1 - Poor agents (look at Ghodoos)
2 - Bad contracts (Look at Azmoun)
3 - Terrible advisers (again, look at Ghodoos)

I dont deny all this but in comparison belgium don't stop getting iranian players in the other hand