Opening
Over the past two years Baltika have stopped recruiting like a club that simply plugs holes during the season. After the arrival of sporting director Armen Margaryan, Kaliningrad formulated a five-year plan: every player is given an internal buy-out range, nobody is untouchable, profit from sales must return into purchases, and the scouting department has grown considerably and receives about 8 million roubles a year.
When a club says openly that it wants to work by the logic of Portuguese and Dutch teams, Latin America and Europe stop being exotic. It is no longer geography for its own sake but part of a model in which Baltika do not argue with Zenit and Spartak over the most expensive foreigners, but look for their own opportunities in the market.
