My Thoughts On: Hulk and Witsel to Zenit - So Much for Financial Fair Play!

A surprise to I think everyone recently, was the transfer activity from Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg, NOT Anzhi Makhachkala, a side renowned for their bottomless pit of money. Shortly after signing the Brazilian Hulk from Porto for €50m (£39m), Zenit manager Luciano Spalletti brought Axel Witsel in for €40m (£31).

Now both of these players are excellent, don't get me wrong, but for £70m, are they really worth it?




Hulk has an incredible record at Porto, scoring 78 goals in 169 appearances but with 55 assists as well. Scoring at a rate of a goal every 2 matches is no simple task for any player, but at Porto, where they dominate the majority of matches, his teammates have made the job a lot easier. This is why I don't think he's worth £39m, he has had a lot of assistance to achieve what he did for Porto. As for Witsel, he definitely is a great prospect at just 23, but with him being young, he really isn't £31m quality just yet.

Another controversial matter on this is Zenit's owners. The Russian club is owned by the company GAZPROM, who are the World's largest extractors of gas, and also funnily enough, are sponsors of EUFA. Now considering their support for EUFA, you'd have thought that they might stick to the Financial Fair Play, however after these two signings, it certainly raises up the old question "how corrupt is EUFA?".

Thanks for reading guys! Be sure to follow me on Twitter!