Rudderless Zenit in danger of domestic and European disaster

Jonathan Wilson / Jonathan Wilson / 20 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

"As so often, a fractured relationship in the boardroom led to fractured concentration on the pitch. Four games without a win put a severe dent in Zenit's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, and led to Advocaat's departure."

Sacking Dick Advocaat may come to be seen as a very big mistake at season's end as Zenit struggle on all fronts.

For a time, Dick Advocaat and Zenit St Petersburg seemed a perfect match. He led them to the league for the first time in 1984, and then made them only the second Russia team to win a European trophy as they lifted the Uefa Cup in 2008.

With Guus Hiddink leading the Russia national team to ever greater heights, it was noted that the strategic similarities between the traditional Dutch and Russian games helped Dutch coaches to settle in Russian, made their ideas somehow less alien than those of the foreign coaches who had gone to Russia ad failed before.

And so it did, but none of that helps when key players are being sold.

Andrei Arshavin, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Pavel Pogrebnyak were all offloaded this year. Replacements have been brought in - the Portuguese attacking midfielder Danny arrived in summer 2008, but he has been only fleetingly impressive, and while Igor Semshov has been a success, the feeling is that he has only really served as a replacement for Konstantin Zyryanov, who is ageing.

The signing of the forward Alessandro Rosina from Torino, meanwhile, seemed to create an irreconcilable rift.

"Rosina? I did not want him at all," Advocaat said.

"It was (sporting director) Igor Korneev who wanted to take him. I'd asked for two or three strikers instead and they bought him without consulting me. I'm disappointed, as this is the first time in my life that a club has bought a player without my consent. I don't understand why the club doesn't listen to me. I know how to invest the money gained from the departures of Arshavin and Tymoschuk."

As so often, a fractured relationship in the boardroom led to fractured concentration on the pitch. Four games without a win put a severe dent in Zenit's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, and led to Advocaat's departure. In a sense, that is not quite the tumultuous event it might have been, given he was going to leave at the end of the year to take the Belgium national team job anyway - and of course, it often happens that a manager whose departure is announced in advance finds his authority diminished, which may have been a contributory factor in Zenit's poor form - but it does leave Zenit rudderless.

Lying seventh in the table, that is something they cannot afford. Qualification for next season's Europa League is a minimum requirement for a club looking to establish itself among Europe's elite, and then there is the business of qualifying for this season's group stage (they are [30.0] to win the tournament; Roma at [11.5] are favourites, with Villarreal [16.0] and Valencia, Werder Bremen, Everton and Hamburg all [21.0]).

All of which is good news for the leaders of the Russian league, Rubin Kazan, and for Spartak, who trail by a point. There is then a six-point gap to CSKA, Dinamo and FK Moscow. That is far from unbridgeable with 12 games remaining, but CSKA are wobbling under Zico and look as though their lack of fitness work in pre-season is catching up with them, while neither Dinamo nor FK Moscow have any experience of winning titles. To see Zenit, who they must have seen as their greatest rivals, three points further back apparently out of the race, can only be a boost.

A long trip to Nacional of Portugal for tonight's play-off is probably the last thing Zenit needed. That said, it does at least take Zenit away from the hiss of gossip and rumour about who Advocaat's successor may be. Luciano Spalletti has already ruled himself out, Roberto Mancini has apparently expressed an interest, and there are scarcely credible suggestions that they might turn to Berti Vogts, the walking disaster who failed as national manager of Germany, Scotland and Nigeria, and who is now messing up Azerbaijan.

In Portugal, Zenit will be led by their youth-team coach Anatoly Davidov, who oversaw Sunday's comeback from 2-0 down to beat Amkar Perm (who are [8.8] to win at Fulham tonight, with the home team [1.51]).

Nacional, who began the Portuguese season with a creditable 1-1 draw against Sporting at the weekend, will prove rather tougher opponents. In that regard, [3.95] on a home win (Zenit are [2.12]) may represent value.