Alexander Medvedev denies that Zenit bought Strahinya Erakovic because of Spartak

Alexander Medvedev denies that Zenit bought Strahinja Erakovic because of Spartak.

– We have partnership relations with Red Star Star, within the framework of which there is the following agreement: if Red Star wants to sell a player, Zenit has a pre-emptive right to acquire him.

This does not mean that Crvena Zvezda should coordinate their negotiations with other clubs with us. But our Serbian partners inform us about this.

What happened in this case. Red Star Zvezda have reported that they have an agreement on the terms of a possible transfer of Eraković.

At the same time, I want to note that Zenit had plans to acquire Erakovic in previous transfer windows. But then we could not agree on the amount of the transfer. In this case, there was no need to re-negotiate.

As I said, Red Star has informed us about the terms of a possible deal with Spartak. It was enough for us, in our turn, to equalize these conditions within the prescribed period. Which is what we did.

Another question is that all this coincided with our game for the Super Bowl. Therefore, we did everything almost at the last moment. But everything was absolutely correct. At the same time, it did not take much time to agree on the terms of a personal contract with the player.

– The general director of Spartak at some point said that if a player does not want to play for the Red-Whites, then the club does not need such a player.

– It has nothing to do with this topic. If we hadn’t made a counteroffer to Red Star, the player would have played for Spartak. But we took advantage of our partnership agreements with Red Star not because Erakovic could end up in Spartak.

It was surprising to me that on the eve of the group stage of the Champions League, Crvena Zvezda decided to part with one of their best players playing for the Serbian national team. Apparently, the matter is in the internal financial situation of Red Star Stars, which forced the club to take this step. Or there are equally strong players for this position.

We sincerely wish Red Star Zvezda success in the Champions League. Recently, the Serbian club participated in the PARI Premier Cup – it is also very important that they came.

As for Spartak, there can be any emotions. Just like literally yesterday with the respected Paris NN coach Sergei Yuran, who said that if a similar situation had occurred, as with the removal of Aleksandrov, at the Zenit penalty area, there would most likely not even be a yellow card. I understand perfectly how players and coaches feel when they lose. And that’s good, it means they care about their business.

But if there were no emotions at all, it would be boring. However, when they cool down, everything must be evaluated objectively. In this case, Strahinya Erakovich did not deceive or betray anyone. We are very pleased that we were able to take advantage of the first-hand player acquisition option on time.

Moreover, the date of Rodrigao’s return to service is still unclear. And the first half of the championship is very important for the championship path.

– What are the terms of the personal contract with Erakovic?

“That’s four plus one years with automatic renewal if a player plays a certain percentage of games in the starting lineup in three seasons,” said the chairman of the board of Zenit.