Star trio head Anzhi firesale

Anzhi's firesale is in full swing after Dynamo Moscow president Gennady Solovyov confirmed that all of Igor Denisov, Aleksandr Kokorin and Yuri Zhirkov have been signed by the club and will be unveiled as Dynamo players on Friday.

Kokorin and Denisov are recent signings at Anzhi, having only spent just over a month at the club after joining from Zenit and Dynamo respectively. Denisov only made three appearances for the club, while Kokorin failed to appear due to suspension. Meanwhile, Zhirkov joined Anzhi from Chelsea in 2011 and made 46 league appearances in his time at the club. The fee for the triple transfer was undisclosed, however Anzhi is expected to make a loss on all three players after Kokorin joined for €19 million and both Denisov and Zhirkov for €15 million each.

The transfers follow the completion of Oleg Shatov's move to Zenit (ironically, this was most likely to replace Denisov), while Samuel Eto'o and Willian are believed to be in talks with English Premier League clubs Chelsea and Liverpool respectively. Foreign players such as Lassana Diarra, Lacina Traore and Christopher Samba are also expected to complete moves away from the club, in addition to lesser known Russian players like Vladimir Gabulov, Arseni Logashov and Aleksei Ionov. 

Speculation is all well and good, but the facts are that Anzhi's project is now officially over and that the firesale still has a long way to go. Especially after their poor start to the season, expect Anzhi to struggle greatly this year, possibly even falling into a relegation battle. Nonetheless, it is a sad time for a league that was finally gaining parity at the top, despite this being a result of excessive spending. CSKA, Spartak and Zenit are now the only likely contenders in what looks to be a three horse race for the RPL title.

Vagner Love reportedly signs for Shandong Luneng

This week has seen a dearth of transfer rumours, so I decided that I'd replace the regular rumour roundup with this special Vagner Love edition.

Chinese side Shandong Luneng have announced the signing of CSKA Moscow's forward Vagner Love. Love only rejoined CSKA in January and was spectacular in the second half of the 2012-13 RPL season, often playing in the hole behind Ahmed Musa. This transfer has not been rumoured at all, and by all accounts Love is happy in Moscow. The most interesting thing about this transfer is that CSKA have failed to confirm it as yet and Shandong are the only party involved that have given any indication that a move is on the cards.

There are a number of possibilities that could possibly explain why Shandong are the only party leaking this to the press. The first possibility is that CSKA is just slow in announcing the news and that the move has already been completed, which is definitely. The next option is that Shandong are getting ahead of themselves and have released a pre-prepared announcement before the transfer has actually been completed and a deal is currently being negotiated, which I believe is the most likely option as it has happened on numerous occasions with other clubs. The final possibility is that Shandong have announced the move as a way to get free press and that CSKA have had little to no contact with them. By claiming that Love has signed, news outlets from across the world will gain interest in Shandong and increase their international profile.

Regardless, more cannot be discerned until CSKA makes an official announcement, at which point things should become clearer. Such an announcement should not be more than a few hours away, but I personally cannot believe that CSKA would sell Love for anything short of a king's ransom. The inevitable loss of Keisuke Honda will hit them hard, and losing Love would all but end the club's hope for a second consecutive title.