Football Season Guide

Arsenal Tula were within a whisker of going down again last season but some sheer luck and much-needed character shown in the key moments eventually saw them just about beat the drop, defeating Yenisey on away goals in the promotion play-offs at the end of May. Overall, they did not really deserve to stay up and mostly circumstances went their way in some crucial moments. Sergey Kiryakov rarely gave the impression of a manager with a clear plan and there was not much surprise when his contract was not renewed in the summer. The Red and Yellow opted for Miodrag Bozovic as a new boss and he has the makings of a very good appointment. He has absolute abundance of experience in the Russian top-flight with teams like Amkar, Rostov, Dinamo and Lokomotiv Moscow, and won the title in Serbia with Red Star Belgrade only just over a year ago. He is a wily and clever tactician who has an eye for talented players and may well turn Arsenal into a solid mid-table side in the near year or two. The one big caveat is that Arsenal have been pretty quiet on the transfer front so far and only Sergey Tkachev has joined on a loan deal from CSKA Moscow. He is a decent, if constant and injury-prone, attacking midfielder and it is clear that Arsenal need additions in central midfield, the full-back positions and possibly another striker. Nikita Burmistrov is not around any more after not renewing his deal while loanees like Jerson Vergara, Moussa Doumbia and Stopila Sunzu, who all had major impact last season, have gone too. Thus, it is hard to make a fair judgement on this Arsenal side just yet as they clearly have more work to do in terms of signing players. For now, they look like one of the main relegation candidates but have the scope and potential to improve their squad so they may well be in for a more sedate campaign after the immense of last year.