football test

Luciano Spalletti has signed a three-year contract with Zenit. One more prominent foreign coach comes to Russia. Will he succeed? Expectations are high at the moment, and Zenit is planning a number of substantial purchase transactions. Goran Pandev is mentioned again in this connection. No doubt, Zenit needs him but does he need Zenit? This summer, he was not too enthusiastic about the prospect.
Serious foreign coaches started coming to Russia in the early 2000s. Their careers here were very different but, in the aggregate, the opinion on their work is certainly positive. Short references of some of them will be given in this and the following posts.



Nevio Scala came to Spartak in the spring of 2003 when the best Russian team of the 1990s was at the lowest point of the crisis. A horrible autumn of 2002, with 6 defeats and 2:18 goal difference in CL; administrative disorder; strange transfers with an easily identifiable corruption component – all that formed the setting in which Scala had to start. Had he come some months later, his career in Russia might have lasted up to now. Those who worked with him speak with great respect of his qualification, but it was of no importance in the circumstances. Having tinkered with all that stuff for about half a year, he resigned.

Artur Jorge replaced Valery Gazzaev in CSKA at the beginning of 2004. In 2003, CSKA won the championship but failed shamefully in the CL preliminary round, beaten by Vardar Skopje. Although the champions, CSKA played a rather poor – “horsy” (© V. Petrzela) - football, and the Portuguese was invited to change the things. Soon it became obvious that such a person – without the slightest sign of drive – cannot manage the team effectively. Serenity was his permanent condition, and it seemed that he didn’t care at all about the developments on the pitch. He was dismissed in July 2004, when CSKA was on the 4th position in the championship, replaced again by Gazzaev, who won a lot of titles in the following couple of years, including UEFA Cup in 2005. But Jorge’s role in CSKA’s victories of 2005-2006 was very large. After his work, the talks of “horsy” football became a thing of the past (though the nickname “horses” survived and became common). He was not able to lead the team, but he injected a heavy portion of invention into its performance; and Gazzaev was wise enough not to destroy what the Portuguese had done.
From that time on, it has become common to speak of Jorge somewhat ironically or not to mention him at all. However, a trend is obvious: the more independent a football writer is of the Russian football establishment, the more readily he gives the Portuguese his due.

The first round of CL is over. Rubin did its best in Milan, but its chances were lowered dramatically by absence of two leading defenders (Ansaldi and Sharonov) and the leading striker Bukharov. For all that, Kazan’s performance was quite attractive, and there were periods when the things might have gone quite another way. CSKA didn’t have any problems with Besiktas. It was expected that the Turks would exert heavy pressure on our defense, but nothing of the kind happened. Besiktas was surprisingly unimpressive, especially if compared with Fenerbahce two years ago. CSKA’s prospects in February depend heavily on the effectiveness of their winter transfer campaign. In their current condition, they have no chances at all. In addition, Sergey Ignashevich and Alexey Berezutsky have problems with their drug tests in Manchester. The theory offered by CSKA’s management to explain the matter seems to be more or less convincing, but several months (at least) of disqualification are inevitable in the circumstances, and in the absence of the two a large hole opens wide in the center of defense.
As for Rubin, they are unlikely to adapt their pre-season arrangements to EL. If your resources are limited, starting the season in February means in most cases to get exhausted by November – a problem that has been troubling our teams for decades.