One-sided loyalties

Sunday 30 September 2012

VALERY Karpin has the same philosophy in football that he applied to his time in real estate: look in the unfashionable backyards, then buy cheap and sell high.The man who paid £10 million to bring Aiden McGeady to Spartak Moscow could have doubled his money on the former Celtic player if he had taken an offer from Zenit St Petersburg last season.

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Phil Gordon

However, Karpin held on to the Glaswegian and it paid off because McGeady laid on the two goals in the final match of last season, against Lokomotiv Moscow, that secured a Champions League play-off spot.

Karpin called time on his three years as Spartak manager this summer to hand over the baton to Unai Emery, the Valencia coach who was his team-mate at Real Sociedad in the mid-1990s. The Spaniard negotiated a route past Fenerbahce to end up in football's equivalent of Moscow's "Golden Mile," the Champions League group stage, which has netted £18m for Spartak.After a narrow 3-2 defeat by Barcelona in the Nou Camp 11 days ago, Celtic are next up. Neil Lennon will bring his team to the Luzhniki Stadium on Tuesday for a game that will be hugely different to the meeting between the teams in 2007, when Celtic defeated Spartak on penalties in a play-off, after matching 1-1 draws, to make the group stage.For starters, McGeady has now switched sides. The Republic of Ireland midfielder remains the last player to score for Celtic in the group stage, with his winner against Villarreal in December 2008. However, Karpin feels McGeady is capable of handling the culture shock of playing against the team he joined at the age of 12."I don't think it will be a problem," said Karpin, who has returned to his role as chief executive at Spartak. "Celtic is the club Aiden has in his heart. He started there and wants to see them when he goes home to Scotland. But when you move to another club, especially another country, you think differently.Aiden tries to speak Russian and his daughter was born in Moscow. He is not looking to where he comes from, he looks forward."A cheque for £10m would not even come to close to paying for one of the luxury penthouses in the Golden Mile, the exclusive neighbourhood in the Russian capital, where McGeady and other foreign footballers have their homes. However, it was more than enough to tempt Celtic into selling in August 2010.Karpin recognised a kindred spirit in McGeady. Someone with flair, someone not afraid to take the risk of leaving their comfort zone behind. Karpin won three titles with Spartak as a player before leaving for La Liga in 1994. The midfielder played for Real Sociedad, Valencia and Celta Vigo and settled in Spain when he hung up his boots in 2005.Just as he had an eye for a pass, Karpin swiftly showed he had one for a business opportunity, tapping into lucrative property development. But he was tempted back to Spartak in 2008 as chief executive, and took over as coach in 2009 when Michael Laudrup was fired. He reluctantly held the job for three years, before handpicking his old friend Emery to give a fresh impetus to Spartak's ambitions.He knows Celtic have found their own stability after a similar ill-fated spell with Tony Mowbray. He said. "I watched them a few seasons ago when I was looking at Aiden. They had a different coach then, but Neil Lennon has made them Scottish champions by doing what every coach must do, changing the players to find the ones you can trust. Teams can change a lot in a few years. However, I know this Celtic team will still have a great heart. I also think they are a technical team, who pass the ball well."Barcelona are favourites for our group, but I cannot see any difference between Spartak, Celtic and Benfica. I do not think Celtic are the poorest team because they came out of pot four in the draw. They were champions of Europe and any club with that tradition always wants to do well. It is the same with Barcelona and Benfica. Spartak have never done that, but we showed in the Nou Camp we can compete with the best."Karpin was still dabbling in property in Vigo when Celtic denied Spartak with the Russian roulette of penalties five years ago. "Maybe that gives Celtic a good feeling about this meeting with Spartak, but in football things change so much in one year, so five is another era."

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One-sided loyalties

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