Football Season Guide

Ural are looking to build on a good last season when they were under no trouble regarding relegation at all. This is a success in itself for one of the more modest sides in the league and has earned manager Vadim Skripchenko the confidence and respect of both the board and the fans of the club. Ural are not aiming for anything big in the coming season but will want to be stable in mid-table and ensure that they stay well clear of the places at the bottom end of the table. Signings have been rather limited so far and hardly exciting ones too. Roman Pavlyuchenko is to be the new lead striker and it is quite a gamble to rely on ageing striker who has barely scored in recent seasons and is often injured. But he is still an upgrade on Spartak Gogniev, who had to carry the attack on his own in the second half of last season. Gerson Acevedo, Gogniev and Edgar Manucharyan are not around anymore and it will be interesting to see how Ural develop as an attacking force in the season ahead. They have bought an interesting new winger Georgian Giorgi Chanturia, a player who made his name for Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands but has since struggled to maintain that standard. Jean-Jacques Bougouhi is another new option in attack as the Ivorian looks to make up the grade after playing in the Russian second division last season. The defence has been bolstered by the signing of young Serbian Radovan Pankov and Skripchenko will be hopeful that the new man have what it takes to hold down a regular starting slot. Aleksandr Sapeta is a serious loss in midfield as he went back to Dinamo Moscow and it will be difficult to replace. Yet the onus is on the likes of Roman Emelyanov and Artem Fiedler to provide the necessary quality in the middle of the park and ensure that Ural are no pushovers. As a whole, they look well-placed for another mid-table finish.