Football Season Guide

Blue-White-Sky Blues failed to defend their title last term and at the end of the campaign the verdict was of a disappointing year. This was always likely to be the case with Villas-Boas’ announcing his departure from the club very early in the campaign and the lack of ambition amongst some players was evident come spring. Still Zenit lifted the domestic Cup and they remain one of the top teams in Russia. The new man in charge is the vastly experienced Mircea Lucescu, who came on the day on which the big super star Hulk left for China after a multi-million transfer. The new gaffer is yet to spend the pile of money that this transfer brought and Zenit’s fans are still waiting to see the first signing this summer. Several players from Brazil and Spain are linked with the club but as things stand no transfers are completed yet. This is very likely to happen before August is over though as other key players are expected to leave. Ansaldi already joint Inter permanently and also Witsel and Lombaerts are on the front door with many clubs bidding for their services. The one positive thing since Lucescu’s arrival is that he trusted the vastly experienced Kerzhakov with the captain’s armband and the lethal striker is back in favour. He is likely to start more games early in the campaign because Danny will remain injured until Christmas. Kerzhakov and Lodygin will be battling for the right to start between the posts, while the most likely four regualrs in defence will be Smolnikov-Garay-Neto-Criscito. In the middle of the park even if Witsel leaves Zenit have impressive players and plenty of cover, but up front things look problematic at the minute and that’s why all names connected with transfers in are forward-orientated. Dzyuba and Kokorin are expected to form much better partnership inside the box, but without Hulk and with Danny injured it is not yet clear who will be supplying them with quality balls. Shatov continues his great development in the number 10 role and many pundits expect to see him being big for Zenit this season. Lucescu is famous for finding unknown gems in Brazil from his time with Shakhtar and if he brings in two or three quality players Zenit are definitely in with a chance to achieve big things.