Football Season Guide

Krasnodar endured the first ever truly woeful and disappointing season in their short history last year, failing miserably in the league despite having probably a top-three squad in terms of talent. Murad Musaev was kept on for too long by the board due to blind loyalty but eventually a managerial change was made with half a dozen games left and Viktor Goncharenko now has a chance of a clean slate at the start of the new season. The Belarusian coach endured his own trauma last season at CSKA Moscow and will be full of desire and motivation to restore both his reputation and start restoring the statue of Krasnodar, who were the envy of the league not too long ago. The squad has so far remained mostly the same as last season, with the exception of ageing forwards Marcus Berg and Ari departing. Colombian forward Jhon Cordoba is on his way from Hertha and he looks like a pretty interesting addition to the final third. Vladimir Iljin is the other new additions but he has hardly shown so far that he can be the man to lead the attack. It seems like the transfer activity will be limited and purses tightened this summer, with Goncharenko left to build and maximise the quality of the current squad. There is still lots of young talent on board and if some of them can start adding a bit of a factor. However, the outlook at the moment is not that optimistic for the Bulls and they are likely to prioritise a more gradual improvement and a hopeful push for the top six and instead of swinging big for a return to Champions League contention.