Rubin Kazan

The years of serious financial difficulties (3 in a row now) continue, with another max exodus of players occurring this summer with 6 regulars from last season no longer in the squad. On top of that the legendary manager Kurban Berdyev also left the club and many worry about the future of the team. With no transfer budget to offer to a new manager Rubin appointed the reserves coach Roman Sharonov in charge, with this being the first ever job for the 42-year-old at senior level after only 2 years of experience as manager of reserve teams prior to that. If nothing else, Sharonov already showed talent at finding decent players for free and the signings of 3 new defenders, all likely to be regular starters, and the unexpected capture of the hot winger Sutormin give Rubin some hope. Sutormin might not play out wide in many games for Rubin, with several friendlies this summer seeing him used as false nine. The manager has other advantage in that he knows many of the players very well as last winter 6-7 youngsters were promoted to the senior squad and they all will be part of the first team from now on. Defender Stepanov was probably the most impressive of these players and his ability to score goals from set pieces and also to play equally well as part of back three or as aggressive left wing-back will likely see him earn lots of starts. With not a single proven striker in the squad Rubin are unlikely to be scoring many goals and once again the focus will be on defending in numbers and keeping as many clean sheets as possible.