Filthy lucre: The ruble, the new green

Fabio Capello is reportedly in Moscow after his skiing holiday in Switzerland. The big drop is he's meeting with Anzhi Makhachkala officials who are looking for a replacement for their coach Yuri Krasnozhan.

The Russian coach is an acolyte of Alan Soziyev, the former director general of the club, who departed the club after his contract was terminated by mutual agreement.

Anzhi Makhachkala, the Russian club with an abundance of wealth behind them, are reportedly close to signing Fabio Capello as manager. The club, owned by Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, has made no attempts to hide its wealth and in recent times has made moves for every notable high profile player available for transfer.

Spurs: Cudicini; Fredericks; Gallas (Parrett); Bassong; Townsend; Falque; Livermore; Carroll; Pienaar; Pavlyuchenko (Kane); Defoe

Tonights game at Central Stadium was always going to be tough for Spurs, no matter which team had been picked. Rubin Kazan have some experienced heads from Russian League and European football and they showed it with a commanding performance against a Spurs team that had a mix of youth and experience.

Trabzonspor coach Senol Gunes has challenged his team to build on their thrilling start to the Champions League by claiming four points against CSKA Moscow.
In their first tilt at the Champions League, after being called in to replace scandal-hit Fenerbahce, Trabzonspor have started by beating Inter Milan at the San Siro and drawing at home against French champions Lille.

Samuel Eto'o has continued to hint that his long-term future lies way from the Russian league, implying that he might end up at Chelsea in the coming years.

Eto'o was rising to prominence at Mallorca when then-Blues boss Claudio Ranieri attempted to bring the striker to Stamford Bridge.

However, the Cameroon international opted to join Barcelona in 2004 and went on to enjoy five great years in Catalunya before moving on to another two successful seasons at Inter.

So the Italian press, including La Gazetta dello Sport (who published this photo of Samuel Eto'o in his Ferrari... oooh!) are all rubbing their hands over the prospect of the striker returning to Milan for a brief spell. Well, obviously he's not going to ditch his lavish private jet and everything that comes with playing for Russian Cha-cha-millionaires Anzhi in exchange for dreary, boring mozzarella cheese (kkk, quite the contrary actually).

Russian big spenders Anzhi Makhachkala are lining up swoops for Robin van Persie, Nicolas Anelka and Neymar, according to player-coach Roberto Carlos.

Carlos claimed his club are also targeting Paris St Germain star Nene in a bid to eventually become as big as Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The newly-rich Russian side mean serious business, and it seems they are going to rival Man City's spending to get a host of superstars to move to the Russian League, and are aiming to challenge for the Champions League in the near future. Roberto Carlos was the first big arrival at the club, and this [.

Sin duda este gol en la Russian league del jugador Michail Osinov en el partido entre Mitos (Novocherkassk) contra Olympia (Gelendzhik), esta causando polemica, ya que puede ser el gol mas rapido del mundo, por lo menos en Rusia si lo es.
Solo que como algunos aficionados ven en el vídeo se debio de anular,ya que el pase de salida fue hacia atras cuando debe de ser hacia adelante, extraño que el arbitro lo haya dado por bueno, pero al parecer hay un jugador que toca el balon y el otro es el que lo retrasa como el jugador esta de espaldas y tapando la pelota no se alcanza a ver bien,por lo cual puede que el arbitro se haya percatado de ello.

Why Avram Grant is the eighth wonder of the world and Orient deserve share of Olympic spoils

Avram Grant's ability to find gainful employment is the eighth wonder of the football world. He's turned up in Dagestan as advisor to Suleyman Kerimov, billionaire owner of Russian League side Anzhi Makhachkala.

Another day, another striker linked to Tottenham Hotspur and today's transfer rumour involves Ivory Coast centre forward Seydou Doumbia who currently plays his football in Russia with CSKA Moscow.

Doumbia was with our old adversaries Young Boys where he played for two seasons before travelling to the Russian league in 2010.

By Kaushik Lakshman

Last week we saw a bizarre transfer when Al-Ain announced that they will be signing Asamoah Gyan on a one year loan at ridiculous wages. Gyan obviously took the option. Many questioned the move, accusing him of being a money grabber, accusing him of making a terrible move with respect to his career and what not.

Cristian Ronaldo provided a great assist to Benzema vs. Getafe. It was a great pass that reminded us of such great passes of the quality by Pele, Maradona, Platini, Zidane and Messi.
The Japanese Yoshida scored a wonderful scissor kick vs.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o has signed a world record breaking £345,000 per week deal at Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. The former Inter Milan striker was signed by the Russian side this week in a £22 million transfer, but his wages alone will set them back much more.

According to The Sun, Eto'o's pay packet leaves him earning £345,000 per week after taxes, which is a staggering amount for a 30 year old, and makes him the highest earning footballer in the world.

CSKA Moscow currently top the Russian League

The 2011-12 Russian Premier League may still have a long way to go but the next nine rounds of matches will prove intriguing. After 30 rounds the league is split into a championship group and a relegation group with eight teams in each. It is, therefore, vitally important for every club that they put some form together at this crucial time.

Tough to be in his shoes

If you make it until the end of this piece and you think that "well, this may be the case but some of it is brought on by the way we handle ourselves", I wouldn't say you're wrong completely. Yet, it feels like everyone is against us. Of course many of those stems from the weekend defeat.

AEK will begin their European sojourns in the capital of Georgia this year against Dynamo Tbilisi,in the knockout stage of the Europa League.The first match will be played at the Boris Paichadze Stadium on the 18th of August with the return leg at the OAKA,1 week later on the 25th.
AEK will be expected to start favourites for the tie,however the Georgians have a rich history and should prove no 'push over'.

Please forgive me for not having presented the best football being played in the world right now (apologies to MLS, Copa America, and the "racially biased" Russian league), and you need look no further than the Women's World Cup in Germany. Not only are there as many group stage goals now, twenty games in, as there were in South Africa last summer (51 compared to 39), but a number of them are some of the best pieces of technique and brilliance you will see all year.

We all know that we have to take the majority of transfer rumours with the proverbial ‘pinch of salt', but when one club claims they've agreed a deal for a player and the other remains silent, who knows what to believe?

So has Roman Pavlyuchenko been sold or not?

Yesterday, Russian outfit Anzi Makhachkala said that a £13m deal had been agreed for the striker and it was now down to him with regards to personal terms.

PFC CSKA Moskva's Czech international striker Tomáš Necid will be out of action for six months after sustaining a serious knee injury in a Russian league game on Friday.

There is a report today that states that the Russian side Zenit St. Petersberg are keen to bring back their prodigal son Andrei Arshavin to the Russian League. Arshavin arrived from Zenit to great fanfare two years ago, but his skills seem to have diminished after a brilliant opening season. There has been zero discussions [.

I picked four interesting videos for this week, the first is a very interesting goal from Russian league when Lokomotiw beat Plowdiw 4-0
My second pick is from Napoli when Cavani scored a hattrick. He scored 17 goals so far for Napoli this season, in the best season so far for this club since Maradona left.

From the Guardian:
The former Chelsea and Newcastle manager Ruud Gullit has joined Russia's Terek Grozny as coach on an 18-month contract, the Chechnya-based club said on its website yesterday. Gullit, 48, joins the club three years after being fired by the Los Angeles Galaxy. He has also managed Feyenoord.

MOSCOW, Russia — Former Dutch international skipper Ruud Gullit was appointed on Tuesday coach of Russian Premier League club Terek Grozny, local media reported. The 48-year-old has previously coached English Premiership sides Chelsea and Newcastle United along with Dutch giants Feyenoord and MLS club Los Angeles Galaxy.