For a club that prides itself on transforming the dynamics of Russian football in terms of infrastructure and investment in the 21st century, Zenit’s functionality in the most sensible European flight has been nothing short of depressing.
The Gazprom era, which began in 2005, was intended to lead not only a revival of the club itself, but also the symbol of Russia in European interclub competitions. To date, its most productive functionality in Europe to win the Europa League in 2008, under the leadership of Dick Advocaat.
The last time he reached the last 16 Champions League games in the 2015–16 season with Andre Villas-Boas. Since current technician Sergey Semak took the reins of Zenit, he has not qualified for knockouts, not once.
This serves as a pitiful record for a club that has won the Russian Premiership a record six times in twelve seasons, despite the festival of big clubs such as Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA, Rubin Kazan. Even more amazing, they have won the national championship twice in the last 3 seasons.
Given the investment in players, infrastructure and marketing, the lack of dominance in Europe is to weigh.
For 3 consecutive seasons after the departure of Andre-Villas Boas, the club did not qualify for the Football Champions League. Even in the Europa League, they can pass beyond the 16-way circular.
During the 2019/20 Champions League season, the club failed to get out of the organizing phase, despite seven problems in its first four games.
These reasons have underlined their lack of ambition in European competitions. For a club that had signed as the Hulk, Axel Witsel, Branislav Ivanovic, Claudio Marchisio and Wilmar Barrios since the 2014/15 season, such a torrid record in European competitions will not tie in anyone.
The amount Gazprom spent on those stars would have been enough to convince enthusiasts that good luck in Europe would come later. Hulk and Witsel arrived at Zenit for 40 million euros each in the summer of 2012. 200,000 euros a week, lasted only ten months.
Branislav Ivanovic has arrived on an annual contract of 3. 2 million euros. This summer, the club leaves Lovren of Liverpool to upgrade Ivanovic as a centre-back.
The stage at Zenit also extends to other facets of Russian football. After the elimination of Krasnodar and Zenit from the Champions League last year, journalist Anton Mikhashenok described the 3 wonderful messes of Russian football: their youth progression programs replaced; his narrow-mindedness, with the same failed coaches spinning around the same trades as usual; and his obsession with effects rather than the process, which means that football is not only ineffective, but also ugly.
In the case of Zenit, the appointments of managers such as Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Mancini and Luciano Spalleti involve a type of mentality: building the size of the club with great appointments in terms of coach profiles. These managers came to the club, with the main goal of revitalizing their careers than taking the club to the next level.
In recent years, the club’s hierarchy has had to eliminate this approach of appointing control and stayed with a local hero at Sergey Semak, however, this can only be seen as a measure of minimisation of positions, as good fortune at the national point is virtually guaranteed all one season.
Zenit, in many ways, characterizes the mindset of the former USSR to enlarge its arm of dominance over its local rivals to be that of the region, not identifying himself abroad.
This season also with a familiar note for the celebration of st. Petersberg. A frantic start to the league crusade with 24 issues after 12 games, while wasting his first level of Champions League organization against Club Brugge. Borussia Dortmund and Lazio, Zenit would be satisfied with a place in the Europa League.