Ukranian Football Betting: Come on over and join the champs Valeri

European Leagues / Jonathan Wilson / 03 December 2009 / Leave a Comment

Valeri Gazzaev shows off his footballing skills ahead of a Champions League tie. Kyiv are outsiders to make the knock-out stages of the Champions League but could be a very dangerous team if they end up in the Europa League.

"Already they bear the Gazzaev hallmarks. Dynamo play quick, neat football, while never sacrificing defensive solidity. Just seven goals conceded in 14 games so far tells just how effective they have been..."

Jonathan Wilson tells us why winning league titles with two different clubs is a feat reserved for a select few but one Valeri Gazzaev has achieved. Better still, he may be about to add something else to his CV with Dynamo Kyiv on the brink of winning the Ukranian League.

In 122 years of English football only four managers - Tom Watson, Herbert Chapman, Brian Clough and Kenny Dalglish - have ever won the league with more than one club. Transferring success from one environment to another is extremely difficult (as even Clough found after leaving Derby for Leeds) and while it is not the only gauge, it is a fairly safe assumption that any manager who has lifted the title at two or more clubs is one of the elite.

Valeri Gazzaev has already won the Russian league with two different clubs and, heading into this weekend's penultimate round of games before the Ukrainian season takes its winter break, his Dynamo Kyiv side ([1.31] for the title) are four points clear at the top of the table. They are [1.35] to win away to Chernomorets Odessa on Saturday.

His most remarkable success was probably his first. Alania Vladikavkaz were never giants of the Russian game, spending only two seasons in the top flight during the Soviet era. One of those, though, was 1991, and so when the USSR broke up, they were the only non-Muscovite Russian side in the Supreme League. Gaazaev took charge in 1994, and after finishing fifth in his first season, they did the seemingly impossible
in his second.

Spartak Moscow won the first three Russian titles, and they would go on to win a further six in a row, but breaking their two runs was Alania. No non-Muscovite Russian team had won the title in Soviet times, and it wouldn't be until Zenit in 2007 that another provincial side won the Russian league, but in 1995, with Mikhail Kavelashvili, Mirdzhalol Kasymov and Bakhva Tedeyev providing a potent attacking trident, Alania finished six points clear of the pack.

Even for Gazzaev, though, Alania's budgetary constraints meant he could only take the team so far, and it was an indication of their real status when their Champions League adventure ended with a 10-3 aggregate defeat to Rangers. Gazzaev returned to Dinamo in 19999, but it was after going to CSKA in 2001 that he established himself as one
of the modern greats.

He was there for six of the next seven years, the decision to replace him with Portuguese manager Artur Jorge soon regretted by the club, who restored him almost immediately. Bouncing around his technical area, a bundle of energy, always stern but with a perpetual twinkle in his eye, he helped break the Spartak hegemony, wining three league titles and three Russian Cups. And, most tellingly of all, making CSKA the first Russian side ever to lift a European trophy as they beat Sporting in Lisbon to lift the Uefa Cup in 2005.

With CSKA struggling last summer the decision was taken that Gazzaev would leave at the end of last season, but as they climbed to second by the end of the year, it was hard to believe the club's hierarchy did not regret their decision. Their appointment of Zico proved a mistake and he was dismissed in the summer. Gazzaev, meanwhile, bided
his time, was linked with Shakhtar Donetsk, and then took the Dynamo Kyiv job when it became available as Yuri Semin returned to Lokomotiv.

Already they bear the Gazzaev hallmarks. Dynamo play quick, neat football, while never sacrificing defensive solidity. Just seven goals conceded in 14 games so far tells just how effective they have been (although they do not have the best defensive record in Ukraine; that belongs to second-placed Metalist, who have conceded just six), while
they have managed 34 goals. Characteristically, most have come from players breaking from deep: Andriy Shevchenko having scored just three, while Artem Mileksvki, Milos Ninkovic and Andriy Husev have 18 between them.

The odds on them winning another Ukrainian title may seem prohibitively short, but a win at home to Barcelona by three goals, or a win of any size coupled with a draw between Internazionale and Rubin Kazan would see them through to the last 16 of the Champions League at 36. Or, perhaps more enticingly, given the tendency for eastern European sides to improve in the spring, they will be contenders for the Europa League should they end up playing in it. Either way, Gazzaev is adding to his already considerable reputation.