THEY have been dubbed the Manchester City of Russia, with a playboy owner whose spending would make even Roman Abramovich wince.
Forget the sheik billionaires who have taken the Premier League by storm, it is little-known Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala which is setting the standard in the lavish spending stakes.
Their shock capture of Inter Milan ace Samuel Eto'o for £22million — pipping City to his signature — made headlines across the world, especially his salary of around
£350,000 A WEEK.
That swoop made the African Player Of The Year the world's highest-paid footballer, with a reported wage of £17.9million per season after tax, effectively doubling his wage.
It leaves Cristiano Ronaldo — previously the best paid — trailing behind on his comparatively measly £11.3million per season at Real Madrid.
Mean streets ... destruction wreaked by a suicide bomb that killed 7 policemen in January last year
Far from being an unrealistic attempt at a fantasy football-style assembly of a superstar squad, the Russians are chasing the man they consider to be the world's best manager — England coach Fabio Capello.
Already on a £6million-a-year deal with the FA, Fabio could well be licking his lips at an unlikely pay rise after next summer's European Championship, his final tournament in charge of the Three Lions.
Anzhi have sent out a real signal of intent having also signed World Cup-winning Brazilian Roberto Carlos on a free transfer. He is said to be on £65,000 a week.
Other big signings include £15million Chelsea winger Yuri Zhirkov (on an estimated £92,000 a week) and former Blues midfielder Mbark Boussoufa, who is also paid megabucks, at around £10million.
There have also been moves mooted for Manchester United's Serbian captain Nemanja Vidic and Arsenal's Russian forward Andrey Arshavin.
Big-money move ... Yuri Zhirkov
Sandwiched between the killing fields of Chechnya and the Caspian oil basin, bordered by Georgia and Azerbaijan in the deep south of Russia, the city of Makhachkala is hardly a hotbed of glamorous WAG culture.
It is in the Republic of Dagestan, which has an unemployment rate of at least 40 per cent. The impoverished area is so dangerous that the Foreign Office has advised Brits not to visit.
But that looks certain to change as the modest local club becomes a real player in world football.
Set up in just 20 years ago, Anzhi only returned to the top tier of Russian football last summer.
Their highest ever league position was fourth in 2000, which paved the way to Uefa Cup qualification and a tie against Rangers, which they lost 1-0.
Russia's deep south ... Makhachkala is located between dangerous Chechnya and the oil-rich Caspian Sea
Last season Anzhi finished a far from glitzy 11th. They will harbour loftier ambitions this season after the arrival of super-wealthy businessman Suleyman Kerimov as boss in February this year.
Listed 118th on the Forbes Rich List — a who's who of the world's billionaires — he is worth an estimated £5billion.
Though that is little over half of the fortune amassed by his countryman, Chelsea chief Roman Ambramovich, Kerimov has made it clear that no expense will be spared in his bid to revolutionise football.
He has authorised spending of more than £150million on transfer fees and wages for well-known players from Europe's elite. A member of the Federation Council of Russia, the 45-year-old served in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
Married with three kids, Kerimov is every bit the magnate. In 2006 he was injured after crashing a new Ferrari Enzo into a tree in Nice, France.
Small-scale ... Anzhi Makhachkala's 16,000 capacity stadium
Moneybags ... Suleyman Kerimov
Though it was originally suggested that Kerimov had bought out the club's former owners, it later emerged that he was given a 100-per-cent stake in Anzhi by the president of Dagestan in return for financial investment in the area.
The mogul has wasted no time — vowing to plunge £900million into the project. Around £125million of that will go on infrastructure, including a new 50,000-seater stadium to replace the run-down 16,000-seater Dynamo Stadium.
Other facilities likely to be built include a state-of-the-art training base, as well as hotels and luxury living quarters for the squad. All in pursuit of the holy grail — Champions League football.
It is an astonishing outlay, particularly given the club's bleak surroundings.
On Saturday night, ahead of Eto'o's first home appearance for the club where he scored in a 2-1 victory against Volga, four people were gunned down on the streets around the stadium. In separate incidents nine other bodies were discovered, including those of a policeman and two soldiers.
Captain ... Roberto Carlos
Just hours after the execution-style murders, the game kicked off.
It is an area gripped by Islamic terrorism and gun crime on the streets. One of our pictures above shows the devastation caused by a suicide bomb which killed seven policemen and wounded 20 people in the city in January last year.
For security reasons Eto'o and his new team-mates are not based in Makhachkala. Instead, they live and train 1,200 miles away in Moscow.
Indeed, they will only set foot in the area on match day, having been flown in by the club. Even then, the likes of Eto'o and fellow star Roberto Carlos are flanked by security guards.
Carlos, who now captains Anzhi, has had his fair share of problems outside Makhachkala — having endured several instances of racism.
Up and running ... Samuel Eto'o scores on his debut for Anzhi
On one occasion, in a match against Krylya Sovetov, bananas were thrown from the stands.
But despicable though the fans' behaviour was, it is unlikely to slow down the head of steam that Anzhi are building up.
Already this season, the club are fourth in the table — just six points behind leaders Zenit.
It seems that this ambitious club with such humble beginnings may be well on the way to glory.