Since the departure of Dick Advocaat after Russia’s somewhat disappointing end to their European Championship campaign, the Russian Football Union have released a list of managers they think should replace him.
Who do you think would be good for Russia?
Advocaat had a distinguished career, not winning any football trophies as an international coach in Russia, but collecting a fair share of football medals whilst coaching at club level, including the UEFA Cup with Zenit St Petersburg in 2008. The Russian connection continued and he took over the helm of the Russian national team in 2010 and, despite a string of good results and even being touted as dark horses in Poland and Ukraine, they crashed out without leaving their group.
But now the Russians are looking for someone a bit different.
On their wishlist is former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, who has not had a lot of luck where international football is concerned after being jilted by the FA in favour of Roy Hodgson. His record with Spurs, including their performances in the Champions League, could be what has attracted the interest. However, “sources close to Redknapp” have reportedly told BBC Sport that he simply isn’t interested in the post.
Their hopes of snaring former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola on the sly also seem unlikely given that he has repeatedly said that he wants to take a 12-month sabbatical. Ex-England coach Fabio Capello is on the list too as he hasn’t even so much as secured a job cleaning football kits since he quit the post. Roberto Mancini was alleged to have been on a first draft until he recently signed an extension to his contract with Manchester City.
Now that Mancini, Guardiola, and Redknapp seem to be out of the running, Capello and Rafael Benítez are the two highest profile managers that are being looked into, but there are a few others who would not be distinguishable from many Premier League players in Nike tracksuits.
They include Anatoliy Byshovets, who managed Russia for one year during 1998 and managed the South Korean team during the 1996 Olympics. His Russian nationality may stand him in good stead for the position, although there is also competition in Valery Gazzaev who has also managed the national team before as well as CSKA Moscow.
Marcelo Bielsa is one of the heavyweights in the running to take charge of the Russian team. He managed the Spanish club side Espanyol in 1998 before going on to coach the national side of Argentina, leading them to Olympic gold football medals in 2004, making them the first South American team to do so since 1928. He then masterminded the rise of Chile in world football, guiding them to their first World Cup in 2010 after two tournament absences. He does have a rebellious streak though, threatening to resign as manager if Jorge Segovia were elected as president of the Chilean Football Board. He then carried out his threat when Segovia was elected. The Russians certainly won’t like that, and the fact that this made him an idol in Chile will not bode well for his chance to take the helm.
Another internal possibility is the current Russian under-21s coach Nikolai Pisarev, who previously managed the Russian beach soccer team for five years. As a Russian national he will have another advantage with the culture and language as well as knowledge of the next generation of Russian players coming through.
Fun though it might have been for the media to imagine what Harry Redknapp would have made of international management, it will take another special kind of coach to run the Russian team.
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