3) Zenit St. Petersburg
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The Russian Premier League may not be everybody’s cup of tea but it has seen some big names in the recent past. World class players like Brazil’s Hulk and Belgium’s Axel Witsel are two who have been plying their trade in Russia for some time.
But it is their current manager Andre Villas-Boas at Zenit Saint Petersburg who grabbed the headlines when he stated late last year that he would not be extending his contract at the defending champions.
It is reported that a fallout with the Russian Football Union, that handed him a 6 game suspension in September for headbutting an official during a game, is the main reason behind this.
Villas-Boas has had a reasonably successful spell at Zenit winning the Premier League, the Super Cup and the Russian Cup but the inability to succeed in Europe has seen many lable his time as a failure.
He will also not be able to defend the league title he won last year as his team currently sit 6 points off CSKA Moscow with a round to go in the 2015-16 season. Even though the club has been a merry-go-round of managers of late, it is still one of the biggest clubs in Russia bankrolled by the state-run gas agency Gazprom. And Pellegrini could be the man to take the club to the next level that it craves to reach so desperately.
