Representing A Continent

Really could not have asked for a better beginning than this - thirty goals in nine games?! That's stupendous. Thank god Chalov never departed as he is really coming into his own nowadays.

After four attempts on deadline day, Inter Milan have secured the signature of Arnór Sigurðsson from CSKA Moscow. The Icelandic winger signs in a record breaking deal for Russian football.

In a deal that has broken a five year record, set by Hulk’s move from Zenit St. Petersburg to Shanghai SIPG in 2015 when the Brazilian moved for £45,500,000. Arnór Sigurðsson has today broken that record in a deal worth up to £74,000,000.

Sigurðsson began his career at hometown club Íþróttabandalag Akraness, who play in the top tier of Icelandic football. After seven games in the clubs first team, aged just seventeen, the winger made the move to fellow Scandinavian nation, Sweden, to play for Allsvenskan side IFK Norrköping.

The Swedish club finished in a lowly tenth in Sigurðsson’s first season, following two successful years prior to that. However, the winger was one of the more impressive performers for the club, something he continued into the next season, playing seventeen games, scoring three goals from the wing. His impressive performances garnered the attention of CSKA Moscow.

It was at CSKA where Sigurðsson blossomed into a highly sought after player, with his development coinciding with the arrival of manager Luke Hendricks. Playing limited minutes in his debut season at CSKA, starting fourteen games, Sigurðsson scored five goals, assisting once. But following the arrival of Luke Hendricks, the twenty-two year old received a boost to his game time. In his first season under the South African manager, he started twenty-one games, scoring eight goals with three assists.

His return then improved the following season, scoring thirteen along with six assists in twenty-seven league games. That return helped CSKA to the 2020/21 Rosgosstrakh Chempionat Rossii, Sigurðsson’s first trophy as a professional. That form continued into the start of this season with seven goals and five assists in just ten games. The form the Iceland international was producing led to many clubs around the continent taking a look at him.

However, only Hoffenheim made a bid for the left winger with a reported £28,000,000 rising to £42,000,000. That was rejected by CSKA and they looked set to keep hold of their key player with the deadline approaching. But, with a day to go, Inter Milan entered the race.

An initial offer of £15,000,000 rising to £25,000,000 was considered to be disrespectful by many at CSKA and to be severely undervaluing the player. That was quickly improved upon by the Milan club with the second offer being raised to £40,500,000 rising to £56,000,000. Again, CSKA saw no reason to sell, with their finances reported to be in a very impressive position, mainly down to the sale of Nikola Vlasic last season. Entering the final hours of the window, Inter once again had a third offer rejected by CSKA with £50,000,000 up front, rising to £70,000,000 not being seen as sufficient.

A deal was finally agreed though, with £54,000,000, more than triple their initial offer, rising to £74,000,000 being accepted. Sigurðsson’s excellent start to the season, along with the fact it was deadline day was believed to be why earlier offers weren’t accepted, but when the final offer came in, many at the club believed they had no other option but to accept the largest sum of money ever paid for a Rosgosstrakh Chempionat Rossii player.

That deal takes Inter Milan's spending total to £348,000,000 this summer, having added the likes of Anthony Martial, Diogo Jota, Nabil Fekir and Emerson alongside Sigurðsson. New Inter Milan manager, Diego Simeone has taken advantage of the wealth of resources available to him and is said to be ‘delighted’ with the signing of Sigurðsson.

Diego Simeone:

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“He’s capped a brilliant window since I arrived. Obviously we had lost two key players in Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez leaving early in the window. That meant we needed to add to our attack and Arnór (Sigurðsson) is a brilliant player to have in that front line. He has shown his ability at his former club and we believe he will continue to develop and impress here. I am delighted that he is joining us and I can’t wait to get to work with him.”

The sale of Sigurðsson has meant CSKA have come to an agreement with Vasco da Gama to bring forward the arrival of Talles Magno. Magno, who earlier this month signed a pre-contract deal to join at the beginning of 2022, will now join the club in September, with CSKA paying £3,900,000 for his services.

Luke Hendricks commented on the deal saying he is ‘pleased’ that Magno will be joining the club earlier than previously expected.

Luke Hendricks:

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“I am pleased, Talles (Magno) is a magnificent player and with Arnór (Sigurðsson) leaving the club, we needed the addition. Instead of spending large on a different replacement we believed spending a small fee on Talles to bring him in earlier was a better move. We can now work with him and it’ll give him more time to develop into the player we want to see him become.”

Arnór Sigurðsson will join Inter Milan with a five year deal agreed, almost quadrupling his wages from his time at CSKA Moscow. The Icelandic winger will be paid a reported £120,000 a week compared to his £34,000 a week at CSKA.

Replies

Griffo:The league is stille arly days so we can't take our eye off it yet, however, progression in the Champions League would really show we mean business.
Scott:I am aiming for that second spot for sure, however, it'll be tough. Benfica lost two games in the league all of last season and are currently 100% this season. Fedor has started brilliantly but we now need to see the consistency! Well he now has the chance to prove himself as a talent!
James:They are not actually on the rivalries page and I won't pretend to have a huge amount of knowledge on Russian football. However, I certainly consider them a local rival and want to be the best of the four Moscow teams! The foreign players rule is a maximum of eight foreign players can be registered.
Magno will certainly need to show a level of maturity quickly as he is likely to be starting a number of games from now on!
tedbro:Taking momentum into the groups could be massive, so lets hope this continues!
Tango: Thank you, I now need him to show his quality earlier than expected!
Jack:Chalov has turned it around early on this season, but the thing he has lacked so far in my CSKA career isn't quality, it's more consistency. Lets hope he can continue to be consistent for longer than two months!

That is an insane fee! And a good winger for when you try to take over Inter again

Well at least something positive came out of you not getting the Inter job and that is a shit load of money for you to re-invest in the club and use it to progress further in Europe

Moscow certainly did well to significantly up Inter all that way into paying what they eventually did. Whilst he was a great player, that sort of money cannot be refused.

Great August for your team and what a nice fee to get for the Sigurðsson! It's petty that is in the last day of the window and you can't invest right away but still..

8th September 2021

“Your Chinese connections worked then Boyra?”

“Yes Sir. They ensured that Luke will not be moving to Inter. They put pressure on the owners there to make a different appointment and Luke was in the end not considered for the job. My connections made it clear that the leverage they had over the owners in Milan won’t be shared with us, but we can be assured, they won’t be hiring Luke any time soon” replied Boyra Uys.

“Very good.” stated the man on the other end of the phone call.

The man looked out of his penthouse office window that overlooked Sandton. Situated in the City of Johannesburg the Sandton area is known as the richest square mile in Africa, the modern day South Africa’s financial hub. With high end stores in the main epicentre of the area’s mall, and incredibly expensive supercars flying through the streets, the area was certainly known for the wealthy.

Standing in front of his ceiling to floor window, dressed in a full black suit, the man was the epitome of power. He looked to be aged in and around his 50s, with greying hair, but despite his older age, he looked in good shape. He stood tall, approximately 6”2, broad shoulders and the physique of somebody who enjoyed lifting weights in his spare time. His suit, worth at least $3,000, was perfectly fitted and a brand new Rolex watch was wrapped around his wrist. It was clear the man had money and a lot of it at that.

Behind him was an office suite that was the size of a two bedroom apartment in London. A large oak desk was the centerpiece of the room, with a single glass of whiskey sat next to a computer screen the only things on it. On the one side of the room was a couch and coffee table that seemed to be used for informal meetings. Whilst on the right was a bar fit for an high end nightclub with a snooker table sat in front of it.

“What about our other little issue,” asked the man as he sat down at his desk “have they been dealt with yet?”

“He has been, yes. We could tell he was getting anxious and had continued to follow him despite not using him for a few weeks. We caught him entering a pub we knew Luke was at and with one of our informants there, confirmed that he was attempting to pass on a message to Luke. We waited outside of his house for a time either himself or his wife was leaving. When his wife eventually did leave we entered without a trace. The team managed to beat him to a point of getting the most information we could before we made it clear to the rest of our informants not to cross us.” Boyra explained.

“That is good to hear, Boyra. It’s good to see that you are not completely useless.” mocked the man sitting behind the desk. “Finally, where do we stand on Luke, do we still have people in place to track him? It won’t be long until I am there with the final plan”

“We do. It was a shame to lose Sergei as he was a different angle that allowed us direct access at times, due to his job. We may be slightly behind where we want to be now because he had to be dealt with but we will recover quickly and have more in place to have the information we require. I do need to know, where are we going with this. What is the next stage?” asked Boyra nervously.

“That is for me to know, Boyra, and you to find out.”

Replies

Jack:Seems like higher powers won't be letting Luke join Inter just yet...
tedbro:We were happy with the finances before, but now they are looking crazy. Very good place to be at the moment.
Scott:It was hard to even accept that to be honest. He is still developing and is scoring goals but at that price he had to go unfortunately. Really has helped our finances though.
OneGameMore:It was irritating that it happened so last minute but hopefully the team can continue this form without him!

oh so Uys is just the puppet while the puppet master is still unknown. Is Domnic Cummings hiding out in South Africa to pull the strings now. Will be very interesting to hear what the final plan is and what happens next to Luke.

Quite an interesting twist to the tale. You have finally beaten me and caught me by surprise

I am certainly going to write a giant conspiracy into my story every time I get turned down for a role! haha

Boyra going about his business [^]. It'll be interesting to see if he stops Luke from getting roles elsewhere, but it makes very little sense for him to want Luke to stay with CSKA tbh.

A few questions arising from this update, I realise that the hub of the anti-Luke operation is based in South Africa. They must have been tracking him from way back in the times that Luke spent in his home country. Secondly, who was the snitch in the pub? I love these updates for these reasons, keeping the reader asking questions.

Maksim Smirnov - The month of September bought Luke Hendricks 100th game in charge of the club. It also bought a remarkable European result as well as setting a new Russian League record.


Vadik Vassily - Another unbeaten run in domestic competition as we go three from three, however, early signs this month were we were going to struggle without Arnór Sigurðsson. We struggled against Rostov, with a Matko Miljevic penalty giving us our only goal of the game. They equalised late, beating Igor Akinfeev who started the game in goal, with Matvey Safonov out of the game with an injury. Also missing was Zlatan Sehovic, whilst Talles Magno was average at best on his debut. All in all a rather dull and disappointing game.

Maksim Smirnov - That game may well have been a disappointment but we followed it up with a result that stunned everyone. In a tactical masterclass from Luke Hendricks, we soaked up a lot of the pressure from Benfica, with Safonov having an excellent game in goal, making 10 saves. But when an opportunity presented itself we latched onto it. Fedor Chalov scored three minutes before the break to destroy the morale of the tired Benfica side who had put so much into breaking us down. We then once again soaked up the pressure, before hitting them on a second counter attack with Chalov, once again composed enough to finish the chance. Henrique Araújo managed to break the clean sheet but it was all too late and we took home the three points in an incredible result for the club.

Vadik Vassily - The majority of the starting eleven against Benfica were then afforded a break in our opening game in this season's Kubok Rossii. As defending champions, we went into the game against Sochi as expected to win, however Serder Serderov gave them the early lead. Sochi then gave us a taste of our own medicine, sitting back and holding on. It was only when Maxim Volodko was sent off for Sochi that we began to open them up. Goals from Lucas Santos, Igor Diveev and Magomed-Shapi Suleimanov saw us through the tie. A special mention also needs to go out to Felix Passlack as he had two assists in his best game so far for the club.

Maksim Smirnov - Again we rode our momentum going into another Moscow derby against Spartak for just our second league game of the month. It didn’t take long to get the opening goal in this one, with Matko Miljevic once again proving his class with a goal in the seventh minute. We again controlled the game well and showed why we are unbeaten in the league for so long. Roman Yengenjev scored his third of the season with a header from a corner confirming the win. That victory broke a record previously held by Zenit, with the side going thirty games unbeaten in the league.

Vadik Vassily - Following that victory that set a milestone for the club, Luke Hendricks saw a personal milestone accomplished. The Champions League tie against Chelsea was Hendricks’ 100th game in charge of the club. Just like the Benfica game, Luke took his side in with a plan that seemed to rely on absorbing the pressure that was undoubtedly going to be put onto us, before hitting them on the counter. Once again, we took the lead. Matko Miljevic converted a twenty-second minute penalty to give us the lead and all was going well for the club. However, with seconds until the half time whistle, Romelu Lukaku, back at Chelsea for the third time, reacted first to a rebound to level the game up on the stroke of halftime. Then just two minutes after the halftime break Federico Bernardeschi gave Chelsea the lead. That was how the game ended, a 2-1 defeat but nothing to be ashamed of.

Maksim Smirnov - It was a tough one to lose having gone ahead, but we can’t be too upset with it. Chelsea had a tough start to their league campaign losing their opening three games however, in their last seven games they have gone unbeaten winning six of those matches.

Vadik Vassily - Despite the loss we still sit second in the group thanks to our victory over Benfica. Tthe Champions League is sorted based on head to head record instead of goal difference and therefore the win over Benfica is even sweeter.

Maksim Smirnov - Well the key man this month has to be Matko Miljevic with the Argentine once again starring this season. This month he scored three goals whilst getting two assists, both against Benfica. He has been outstanding and is well deserving of his second player of the month award already this year.

Vadik Vassily - Yes, his only real competition was Fedor Chalov, however, Matko clinches it. With eleven games played in the league so far this season, he has five goals and seven assists. It’s been a brilliant start to his first full season. No doubt we will soon be seeing many offers come in for the twenty year old.


Maksim Smirnov - October is the penultimate month in the domestic season before we head for the season break. It’s a busy one as well seeing us play six games in total. We begin with an away task against Akhmat before a home game against Arsenal Tula. Tula have been unexpectedly hard to beat so far this season, losing just twice, and have already beat Zenit this season. We then have what many would say is the easiest test in our Champions League group, FC København. It’s another away fixture following our trip to Denmark, as we play Sochi. Krasnodar is next in the Kubok Rossii 6th round, before we end the month against bottom of the table, Baltika Kaliningrad.


Vadik Vassily - The fixtures aren’t the toughest in all honesty, with the toughest of those most likely being Arsenal Tula. However, the sheer volume of travel we have is crazy. Five out of six matches are away games including travelling to Denmark. However, with the momentum we have I wouldn’t be surprised if we can take a good number of points from these games once again.

Maksim Smirnov - We need to continue to pick up the victories, with Zenit still hot on our tails. But that is next month, we will see you then. For now goodbye.

*Taken from the CSKA Armiya Youtube Channel 29th September 2021*

Replies

tedbro:Certainly seems as though somebody is even higher up than Boyra, who that is, is yet to be known
Scott:Knew it was coming
Griffo:How dare you accuse me of such a thing! That's 100% why I didn't get it
James:Certainly won't want Luke at CSKA with how they are doing, but if the big boss wants him there, I guess Boyra has to listen!
Jack:I can not confirm nor deny whether those questions will be answered in future updates...I am glad I am keeping you guessing throughout!

Nice that CL-group gives a lot of opportunities, normally you'll get to the next CL round I hope. Also a good 1st Place, Good luck further! Very nice story

A crucial victory against Benfica will really boost CSKA's chances of progressing from the group. With Zenit hot on their heels, they can't afford for many more slip-up's in games like we saw against Rostov.