Artem Chobanian

The year 2008 will be full of new expectations for the teams, players and fans. The seasonal difference between the Russian Premier League and the normal European season has meant the leading clubs dove into a new wave of UEFA matches right before the championship started.

2008 has not been very kind for the prominent Russian teams in European competition so far. Spartak Moscow were defeated by Marseille some time ago to end their UEFA Cup involvement. Then Zenit St Petersburg faced the same team, first in France, ending in a 3:1 defeat. But what a brilliant turnaround took place at “Cherkizovsky”! First, in the press conference Eric Gerets and Lorik Cana were very careful and tactful in describing Zenit’s chances to defeat them. They said Zenit were different from Spartak and thus they would be looking forward to having a nice but difficult match. Second, Dick Advocaat appeared, very low key, just murmured some words about his team being ready to show the best football they could and that was all.

As for the game, we should say that a quite comfortable score for Marseille was transformed by the match being a carbon copy of the first game, but with Zenit as Marseille and Marseille as Zenit. St. Petersburg’s team were very good tactically and their attacking play worthy of the highest praise. Moreover, that victory should be a signal for other top Russian clubs, because Zenit are showing such good form at this early stage of the season they will most probably continue in this vein. And that could be bad news for their rivals.

Well, Marseille were competitive as well, but they lacked determination and… luck! Yes, yes, luck. This point we will discuss below as well when looking at the chances of the Russian sides to win the Premier League.

The Russian Premier League will begin its first round with all clubs totally equal, both in the number of points and achievements. We also should not forget that 2008 is a very significant year for the Russian players, they will participate in Euro 2008 and thus will do their best to earn a place amongst the 22 players Guus Hiddink will take to Austria/Switzerland. We shall have to see if this affects the current Premier League campaign to any noticeable degree.

Looking once again at the championship, we cannot but mention the fact that Russian Premier League clubs have become more mature for the last five years and are improving in quality every season. That’s very promising.

Amongst the latest news is Sergei Rebrov’s transfer to Rubin Kazan. The same side has also bought Turkish international midfielder Gokdeniz Karadeniz from Trabzonspor for €8.7M. This shows the increasing wealth and pull of Russian clubs. There has also been, interestingly enough, huge interest in Spartak Moscow forward Roman Pavluchenko from the bosses of Real Madrid. We are not sure about the chances of Pavluchenko being bought, but after exiting the Champions League, he could be the kind of unexpected signing to freshen up Madrid’s play.

Well, fifteen teams are going to challenge Zenit in the Premier League and we’ll run through them here. But first, with Russia being such a huge country it’s always helpful to know where every side is.

.

Zenit St Petersburg

Zenit were very lucky last year. In games against team from outside the top group Zenit were very close to either drawing or losing the match on many occasions, but late goals and resilient attitude helped them escape many times.

Zenit lost or just managed to draw with the top clubs in games between them, but they were lucky in that these rivals took an equal amount of points from each other and slipped up against smaller teams. As we have stated above, Russian clubs become stronger and more serious in their attitude to football. That means they are becoming real professionals and this has been shown in the increasing competitiveness of the so called smaller sides.

Amkar Perm

With all due respect to the clubs that have never before achieved spectacular results in Russian Premier League, we should say that Amkar is not going to be the this season’s surprise package, even for the teams of their rank. They sold Ivan Levenez, Evgeniy Savin and Andrei Kobenko, who were solid players. Andrei Lavrik and Konstantin Paramonov were not so good perhaps, but comparing this to the players Amkar bought, and that is only Krendelev from Terek Groznyi, this is a significant loss. According to the manager’s office, they are considering signing many more players soon, but these ones are from very weak teams and so will not make much difference to their overall strength.

CSKA Moscow

One of the biggest Russian clubs didn’t get enough financial support in the pre-season period, but, as the coach says, “We need to improve our play with those players we have, and not to buy more even people for the pitch”. Valeriy Gazaev is tough in what he says, but quite right. Last season his players didn’t seem to find the right places for themselves, thus losing nice moments to score or just hindering each other. They bought another Brazilian (Ricardo Jesus) and Nikolai Zaizev, Dmitry Ryzhov, Anton Vlasov, who are not outstanding players but will be handy as substitutes. However, selling Ratino, Rolan Gusev, Taranov, Mandrykin and Burmistrov does seem a little too much, but Gazaev has his own ideas about tactics and the players he needs. We think this season he will need to build up the side’s team spirit in order to guide them to the title.

Dynamo Moscow

The first thing that comes in mind when we talk about Dynamo is that the bosses of the club think they can win the league with just one good player, that is Alexander Kerzhakov. Well, he is good, no doubt, but what about other arrivals? According to the manager, they are considering signing Miodrag Bozhovich from Rapid Belgrad, Dica from Steaua Bucharest, and some other players, but this is not definite. Well, as Kerzhakov said at his press conference, he is going to play like he has never played before, and thus inspire those players around him. Very conceitedly, we should say, but very intriguing as well. We are uncertain about Dynamo’s chances of winning the League, but watching this club’s progress will be one of the most interesting things about this season.

FK Khimki

One of many teams in the Russian Premier League that can be called average. There is not too much to say about their chances this season apart from that we think they will finish either mid-table or a little lower. Although they may not agree with that and would say they have been very active in the transfer market selling and buying players like Andrei Tihonov, Roman Shirokov, Roman Vorobjev, Anatoliy Rozhkov, Alexei Semenov, Shimich and Pilipchuk, Nizamutdinov, Radkov, Pershin. But will this make any difference? Even the coach is not certain about it.

FK Moskva

The club president Yuri Belous and the coach, former Ukraine national team boss Oleg Blohin were very short and precise in their declaration of the team’s objectives for this season. “We are aiming at fourth place. Otherwise it isn’t worth playing in the League”. It seems the club bosses made their major investment in Oleg Blohin and hope he will be enough to lead the team to the desired position. This looks a strange move, but with Blohin’s luck and wisdom everything’s possible! The transfer period was not very effective for FK Moscow, so we should wait and see how Blohin will ‘play’ for the whole team!

Krylya Sovetov

One of the clubs that has made no promising announcements, nor big purchases. Getting Tihonov, Ivan Taranov, Evgeniy Savin, Oleg Ivanov, Alexander Belozerov did not make a big difference to the playing side. Selling Topich, Alexei Medvedev, Mudzhiri and Angbva did not, equally, weaken Krylya Sovetov either. According to the official press release, the club are shooting for a place in the top 10, or top 8 if they are lucky.

Lokomotiv Moscow

According to the manager’s words, “The team is well-organized, we have equally skilled players in all positions and some good new footballers that we hope will develop nicely during the season”. Well, one thing is for definite, Lokomotiv have four goalkeepers now, but most probably will start the first game with just three or even two, because of the unclear situation with Polyakov and Gillerme. Italian ‘keeper Pelizolli is injured, so the goals will be in the hands of Levenez. He is not a bad keeper, with quick reactions but not so good at tackling and in the air. Other major players that appeared in the team were Dmitry Torbinskiy and Marjan Had. Branislav Ivanovich left the club for Chelsea, however, the coach Rashid Rahimov seems absolutely sure they can hit the top of the table right from the beginning and stay up there until the end of the championship. Frankly, they do have a chance but let’s wait and see.

Luch Vladivostok, Tom Tomsk and Terek Groznyi. Three shady teams, which we have dared to combine for a reason. Trying not to offend the fans of these clubs, we should say they do not have a big chance of doing well in the league and should aim only for survival. There are always teams that can get some good results once or twice during the season but they do not usually interfere with the championship struggle or even with the clubs in the middle of the table. We do hope we may be wrong in this, but a weak transfer policy, poor financing and lack of experience will probably lead to nowhere.

Luch-Energia

It is always a mammoth task for a visiting team to obtain a result in Vladivostock, with the flight itself taking over 8 hours! Luch signed some new players like Dakosta, Vitaly Bulyga and Nikita Burmistrov. This was not really a nice deal for the club keeping in mind that they sold thirteen players!

Tom Tomsk

This club from the middle of the country bought Jokich, Andrei Kolesnikov, Veniamin Mandrykin, Vitaly Volkov and Denis Bolshakov, who are solid footballers, but we don’t think these will be able to change anything dramatically.

Terek Groznyi

The club from Chechnya get support from the local and state sport committees. Politics is involved, of course, but the mere existence of this team is very important for Russia. Terek could afford to buy Rade Petrovich, Stefan Essame, Ilion Lika and Radoslav Zabavnik. All of these are foreign players that seem to have adapted quite well. The fans and supporters of the club do not expect something extraordinary, but somehow surely the team will stay in the Premier League for another year.

Rubin Kazan

Rubin invested their money in some very good players like Sergei Rebrov, Gokdeniz Karadeniz, David Kvirkvelia, Orehov and Semak. They intend to finish as high as possible in the table this year. According to the managers’ office statements, “There’s nothing to stop us from getting good results, we just have to play well against the top teams and score as much as we can against other clubs”. This formula seems quite simple and it will be interesting to trace the progress of this club that didn’t have a lot of opportunities to train well during the off-season.

Saturn Moskovska Oblast

One of the clubs with no great ambitions, but a nice group of players willing to fight their way to the middle of the table. That is, so far, the sweetest dream of the team. In the signings of Roman Vorobjev, Marco Topich, Angbva, Kovel and Zelau, the bosses hope to make good progress, but this ignores the fact that they sold some good players like Gogita Gogua, Artem Pershin, Pavel Solomin and Oleg Vlasov.

Shinnik Yaroslavl

A very nice club with a proud tradition dating back to the Soviet Union period. Yaroslavl have never shown great results but they do have the ability to beat any team if they are in good shape. This year Shinnik have bought Laisans, Dmitry Semochko, Denis Bojarinzev, Maxim Buznikin, Zdravko Lazarov and these players mean a lot for the club. As Bojarinzev put it, “We are all equal, have nothing to prove except for the fact that we are professionals, and have to play to win in every game”. Shinnik have a good opportunity to be amongst the best 8 teams in the league.

Spartak Moscow

Definitely, Spartak weren’t lucky last season. They did all they could to try and win the title but Zenit were more fortunate. Vyacheslav Cherchesov is very positive and optimistic about his team’s chances this season. He is sure they will not make the same mistakes again and the chance is quite good for them to become champions this year. However, the club sold some nice players like Torbinskiy, Bojarinzev, Jeder and Rebko and we are not sure Egor Filipenko, Igor Gorbatenko, Soslan Dzhanaev and Christian Maidana can replace them. And, if they sell Pavluchenko to Real Madrid, we don’t see how Cherchesov is going to challenge the top clubs. But with all this vagueness in the club’s transfer policy it will be very intriguing to observe how they are going to move on. We are sure Spartak have the quality to win the championship but they need Pavluchenko to be still in the team and some luck in the games against the top clubs.

Spartak Nalchik

This team’s progress was remarkable in the last three seasons. A team from a small town with poor financial backing and almost no experience are this year dreaming of a high finish. New arrivals include Marat Bikmaev, Gogua and Kirill Kochubei, but frankly speaking, this dream is rather far from reality and that is because they have sold some wonderful players like Viktor Faizulin, Ricardo Jesus, Popov and Pilipchuk. We think the team will not finish higher than 10^th place.

Conclusion 

This year’s Russian Premier League promises to be action packed and full of surprises. It could be one of the most open title races in years and there is no doubt that Zenit St Peterburg face a big struggle to hold onto their crown. The ever improving standards of team from across Russia means that this league is fast becoming one of the most exciting to watch in all Europe. And when the other leagues shut down for the summer, the Premier League is here to keep you entertained.