russian teams in europa league; ugh.

Dynamo Moscow could not create anything even remotely interesting in their game against CSKA Sofia. The Bulgarian team wasn't anything special, and evidently neither is Dynamo. 0:0 is the final score, and while the game (and especially the second half) was disappointing, the result isn't exactly horrid.

Amkar had the hardest opponent. The team traveled to England to face Fulham. The Russian team was simply not physically ready to compete. By the time it was the middle of the second half, Amkar footballers were running out of gas. The result was predictable, a 1:3 loss, though to be fair Dimitar Dimitrov's men tried their hardest, and not all is lostwith this result. But with the current state of the team, Amkar is not likely to move into the group stage of Europa League. Might as well wave bye-bye now.

The biggest disappointment came from the 2007/2008 UEFA Cup winners, Zenit St. Petersburg. The team traveled to Portugal to face little known CD Nacional (Cristiano Ronaldo's home and first pro club). Zenit's performance was, once again, marred by wasted opportunities and absolutely horrific defense. With the St. Petersburg's team controlling the flow, the game ended with a 4:3 win for the home side. This certainly gives the Russian team ample opportunity to advance if they do win at home, but with the amount of positional mistakes from the defensive players, and Zenit's chronic inability to put the ball in the back of the net, I am skeptical that Zenit can accomplish anything reasonable this season.

UGH!

who is adrian mutu?

Adrian Mutu might be coming to Zenit St Petersburg. Fiorentina wants some double digit millions of some currency for him. The money part is not interesting. What's interesting is what Adrian Mutu did before he got to Fiorentina. Because that part makes Zenit's bid for Mutu ... much more interesting.

In 2004 Adrian Mutu failed a drug test. He tested positively for using cocaine. Chelsea fired the man, and filed a breach of contract claim. What it means is that Adrian Mutu probably had a clause in his contract that said "you can't do drugs! if you do drugs you violate the contract. if you violate the contract you have to pay us lots of money." Adrian Mutu was ordered to pay Chelsea a total of £9.6m. And a few weeks ago this number grew to €17m. Which is around £14.5m now. I can hardly believe that he has that kind of cash. He won't be making that kind of cash to spare either: he is 29.

Roman Abramovich owns Chelsea which means by the transitive power of the concept of ownership that Adrian Mutu owes that big hunk of cash to Roman Abramovich. Roman Abramovich is a huge Russian soccer supporter. The fact that Guus Hiddink was named as Russia's national team's headcoach is all Abramovich. Clearly the same goes for the temporary helming of Chelsea by Hiddink this spring: Hiddink had an opportunity to return the favor.

So Adrian Mutu might go and play for Zenit St. Petersburg. Why would he ever agree? Zenit had barely made it into Europa League last year. But the way they have been doing this season, they might not even make any European club competition. If Fiorentina really wanted to dump him and grab all that cash quickly and last minute, then I guess he has no choice. However, one can also hope that his agent can find him a better national club competition than Russian Premier League -- no offense, there messrs Abramovich, Mutko, etc.

Zenit seems like not such a great choice for Adrian Mutu. You don't even hear him complain at the possibility, and Adrian Mutu knows how to complain.

So let's recap: Adrian Mutu owes Abramovich lots of money. Abramovich wants to raise the level of Russian soccer. You think Abramovich might forgive some of that debt if Mutu does a couple of years in Russian exile?

UPDATE: Zenit St. Petersburg PR department says that they are not interested in Mutu. So I guess my ruminations might be ... ummm ... moot.

Zenit St. Petersburg fires Dick Advocaat.

Whoops... I thought I might've said about that being on the horizon.

Gazprom Zenit St. Petersburg fired Dick Advocaat.
"Thanks, dude, but after signing that Belgian contract you have not been doing your job here, which by the way ain't over yet." You are fired.

Translation: That new coach that we have waiting in the wings might bail on us if he gets to coach a team that is not in any European club competition. And it is looking like you, Dick, aren't leading the team to qualify even for the Europa League next year. That UEFA Cup and UEFA Supercup trophies were nice though. See ya.

the slow disassembling of Zenit St. Petersburg

Good things never last... The players who had led the team to winning Russian Championship, Russian Supercup, UEFA Cup, and UEFA Supercup in the last two years are gone:

• Andrei Arshavin --> Arsenal (£16.5M)
• Anatoli Timoschuk --> Bayern Munich (€15M)
• Pavel Pogrebnyak --> Stuttgart (€4.5M)

Head coach is going to Belgium at the end of the season. He is currently bickering with the club in hopes that he'll get fired early?

... and who did the team get as replacements?

• Danny from Dynamo Moscow -- currently injured; out for the season
• Kornilenko from Tom'
• Rossina from Seria B

... and you wonder why Zenit has no game?

Ugh.

gazprom money

Roberto Mancini, Inter's most successful head coach of the last 30 years is moving to St. Petersburg to replace Dick Advocaat at Zenit St. Petersburg.

TransferMarketWeb sez so.

Who says money can't buy everything?