Sardar Azmoun @ Zenit St. Petersburg 2021/22

[inarsenewetrust]

Semak confirmed he rejected their new contract offer but that he won’t leave until the summer.

Zenit draw real betis in EL, currently 3rd in la liga and coached by former city boss pellegrini. Will be a challenging tie, great opportunity for sardar to up his reputation even more considering strong caliber of opponent

[BacheLot]

i'm baffled by it..? but sadly its becoming quite evident that for whatever fking stupid reasons, he just isnt rated all that highly and sought after by the more Elite teams of EU...!!?
or could it be that his personal pay-package demands are on the high side ??further turning off their already lukewarm interest ..?

but since the last serious approach to land his services by Leverkusen fell through mostly due to Zenit's non negotiable, heavy handed approach, its been Only Lyon hastily chasing after him ..!! i figured that intense interest to be a case of ("aoo aoo angoor toroshe .... bezar bereseh .... taa vagti ke berese ... digge be maa nemirese..!") bashe...!?
Nakoneh ke Lyonia Kharesh kardano o Hendooneh zire dastesh endakhteh baashan ke Saree een tasmimo mohemo begireh ..!!?


TBH, this time im really glad that Zenit is playing hardball still and forcing him to see his contract through this summer...!!
im still certain a lot better transfer options will come his way by June when on Free ... probably he'll be bombarded with them as soon as this January..!! he just have to remain resolute and dont make an idiotic early commitment..!

personally can't stand the boring asss French league action, especially in a more obscure team there like Lyon..!!

[Doctor DOOM]

IF this becomes reality, then I suspect it has a lot to do with him expecting to be a starter and not taking a chance to go to a club that may bench him after a few low performing games.
I guess he's looking for assurances that he wld be given enough time to adapt.
Lets say he starts the first 5-6 games with 0 goals.
Would leverkusen or Roma give him that time?

In this present Lyon, he will be probably the big fish. score a couple of goals in his first 5-6 games and he can be sure his position is cemented.



I also agree. Lyon may seem underwhelming ATM.
But they're a pedigree club and usually pedigree comes up top.

so lets wait and see if this does become reality or not.

============

to answer the question why I keep bringing Barca up:

how often do we see a world class club become so desperate to opt for players they usually wouldnt even look at?
Not often.
To top that, they are financially in the toilet and are searching for quality players but CHEAP.
Barca is in that situation right now.

We also know in Europe, Iranian players are not really that sought after, even if they perform better than 60-70% of the imports!! Sad but true.


this Barca-Azmoun thing is like a once n a lifetime opportunity that his agent simply missed!
coz once barca bounces back (probably next season) we can be sure they wouldnt even look at this side, let alone actually hire one.

[diz]

[naderb94]

Lyon is a disappointment considering the other options he had on the table, but I would think he would immediately be the best striker on the team.
Lyon is usually a great club where other bigger clubs come poach from.

[Leicester City]

Seems Zenit are negotiating for Yuri Alberto

[inarsenewetrust]

IF he does indeed go to lyon, and its still an IF then ofc that is a disappointing move overall, although some understandable elements (being top dog from day 1, even though in bad form now lyon is traditionally one of top 3 in france and have talented squad, will probably rebound, lot of prestige, etc).

The best move imo was always leverkusen, even more than italian clubs bc of potential to pair with schick as starter, lowkey club with not as much pressure but very strong young team. They gave him an offer and he preferred them to lyon. 18 million was a very reasonable fee for somebody entering last year of their deal as he was this summer and thats even without considering sell on clauses. The fact Zenit rejected that deal, after initially having agreed to it, was really the biggest tragedy out of all of this. They lost out on a very solid fee for Sardar, he lost out on a move to top 4 league for one of the best teams where he would have gotten good minutes. That is the move he deserved and if it, or another move of that level doesnt happen it is not his fault, but zenits.

Now circumstances change, maybe leverkusen think they are ok with only schick as CF option, play lone striker system, and then just rotate wingers there when he is out.

End of the day zenit offered him big money extension, something like double what he is currently on to make him top earner of club with Malcom at around EU 7mio/yr. He rejected it, so don't say BS like he doesnt want to improve or take risk or blah blah (same people who said he would never leave russia). IF tomorrow only Lyon is willing to guarantee him more than backup role and he prefers that in WC year then sitting on bench somewhere else or staying in zenit then you cannot deny that has some validity, even if we all rather not see him in france.

He did his job, stayed professional, scored good amount of goals given mins in league, performed very well in CL and added goals vs Chelsea, Juventus and kept scoring critical goals for TM, sometimes in football you dont get what you deserve and still try to make best of it.

[topotour]

Folks here are sometimes living in the self made reality that the world view our stars (Taremi, Azemoun...) in the same lens as them. We need to be optimistic but at the same time realistic. Lyon is certainly a disappointment if Sardar had a solid offer from Arsenal, Totenham,..... right now and he chose lyon instead. Also you dont want him to be a bench warmer in these teams waiting for when and if he gets 10-20 mins. He wants to be "The" star of the team he goes to and have the team build around him. Benzema and many others started in Lyon and it is probably 2nd decorated team in France. Imagine the headline if Sardar can turn things around for lyon and bring them to top 4 team in 2nd half of the season.

[Ab-Gosht]

malmcolm is earning 7m euros per year? jesus christ

[Shantaram]

Folks here are sometimes living in the self made reality that the world view our stars (Taremi, Azemoun...) in the same lens as them. We need to be optimistic but at the same time realistic. Lyon is certainly a disappointment if Sardar had a solid offer from Arsenal, Totenham,..... right now and he chose lyon instead. Also you dont want him to be a bench warmer in these teams waiting for when and if he gets 10-20 mins. He wants to be "The" star of the team he goes to and have the team build around him. Benzema and many others started in Lyon and it is probably 2nd decorated team in France. Imagine the headline if Sardar can turn things around for lyon and bring them to top 4 team in 2nd half of the season.

When Benzema played for Lyon, French league was much stronger. I don’t really think Zenit will let him go this transfer window. All this is hashyie and he will leave to a big club at the summer transfer window 🙏🏻

[Dreamer]

Folks here are sometimes living in the self made reality that the world view our stars (Taremi, Azemoun...) in the same lens as them. We need to be optimistic but at the same time realistic. Lyon is certainly a disappointment if Sardar had a solid offer from Arsenal, Totenham,..... right now and he chose lyon instead. Also you dont want him to be a bench warmer in these teams waiting for when and if he gets 10-20 mins. He wants to be "The" star of the team he goes to and have the team build around him. Benzema and many others started in Lyon and it is probably 2nd decorated team in France. Imagine the headline if Sardar can turn things around for lyon and bring them to top 4 team in 2nd half of the season.

I'm fully with you, the only thing that strikes me odd about this deal though is that Lyon is 13th(!!) at the moment, and that last year they came in at 4th, and so even though they've made it to the R16 for the Europa League, it doesn't seem likely that they'll make it to the Champions League. It's a bit of an odd decision to move from a team that's in the UCL practically every year, to a team that has been qualifying on and off.

I don't expect him to go to Tottenham or Arsenal, and I think it's good that he doesn't as both of those teams are at the same level of Lyon, but I do find it strange that he didn't go a Sevilla, or a top 4 German team instead.

[PSGman#19]

When Benzema played for Lyon, French league was much stronger. I don’t really think Zenit will let him go this transfer window. All this is hashyie and he will leave to a big club at the summer transfer window 🙏🏻

Benzema was 19/20 years old at that time.
Also, it's not lyon that is interested by Azmoun it is bosz. If bosz leaves, lyon won't take him.
Currently they are 13th but have one game less

[Shantaram]

Benzema was 19/20 years old at that time.
Also, it's not lyon that is interested by Azmoun it is bosz. If bosz leaves, lyon won't take him.
Currently they are 13th but have one game less

Yes, and it was an era of big name players like Ronaldinho, Juninho, Zidane, Laurent Blanc, Cavani. Now you see only PSG with the big star players. Ligue 1 isn’t a strong league and I don’t believe it’s much stronger than the Russian league.

And as you say Bosz wants him, he won’t be there for long. Also Klopp wanted Azmoun, why doesn’t he just have higher ambitions to go to the best league in the world?

[PSGman#19]

Yes, and it was an era of big name players like Ronaldinho, Juninho, Zidane, Laurent Blanc, Cavani. Now you see only PSG with the big star players. Ligue 1 isn’t a strong league and I don’t believe it’s much stronger than the Russian league.

And as you say Bosz wants him, he won’t be there for long. Also Klopp wanted Azmoun, why doesn’t he just have higher ambitions to go to the best league in the world?

No Laurent blanc and co didn't play in French league during benzema time and most of them didn't play very long in this league

[Shantaram]

No Laurent blanc and co didn't play in French league during benzema time and most of them didn't play very long in this league

I know, I mean the old era with big star names and strong teams. They had a much stronger league.