FM10: Official Rubin Kazan Thread- Deserved Champions?

FC Rubin Kazan

Full name: Municipal Institution Football Club Rubin Kazan

Nickname(s) : Rubinovye (Ruby), Tatary (Tatars), Krasno-Zelenye (Red-Green)

Founded : 1958

Ground : Central Stadium, Kazan (Capacity: 30,133)

Chairman: Alexandr Gusev

Manager: Gurban Burdiyew

League: Russian Premier League

Rubin Kazan is a Russian football club based in Kazan, Tatarstan, a province in Western Russia. They currently play in the Russian Premier Division, the country\\\'s highest league. Rubin Kazan was first promoted to the top flight in 2003. Early predictions were that the club would immediately be sent back down, but instead, finished 3rd in their debut season, seeing them qualify for the UEFA Cup (Europa League). Up until last season, there was little success for the club, with mid-table finishes occurring from then on.

However, in the 2008 season Burdiyew lead them to a first ever Premier Division title. They embarked on a wonderful season which No-one would have expected, not even the Rubin fans themselves. The backbone of their huge success was undoubtedly their Argentinian playmaker, Alejandro Dominguez. The 28 year old scored 16 goals in the season, and was the mastermind of many more.

In the current 2009 season, Rubin currently sit on top of the league with 2 games remaining, and a win in one of the last 2 games would see them retain their title.

Squad:

The squad is quite strong at the moment, but there are some positions that need to be backed up or filled. The standout player is obviously Dominguez, although I would not consider selling Karadeniz, Bukharov, Ansaldi, Semak or Sharonov.

Goalkeepers

GK: Sergey Ryzhikov*

GK: Sergey Kozko

GK: Nukri Revishilli

Defenders

D/WB/M RL: Cristian Ansaldi*

WB R, AM RL: Eugeny Balyaikin

DRLC: Lasha Salukvadze

SW, DC: Roman Sharonov*

SW, DC: Cesar Navas*

DC: Stjepan Tomas

DC: Alexey Popov

D/WB L: David Kvirkvelia

Midfielders

DM, MC: Rafal Murawski

DM, MC: Macbeth Sibaya*

DM, AMC: Sergey Semak*

M RC: Christian Nodoa

AM RLC: Gokdeniz Karadeniz*

AM RLC: Alan Kasaev

AM R: Alexandr Ryansantzev

AM RC, FC: Alejandro Dominguez*

AM R, ST: Hasan Kabze

AM L: Petr Bystrov

Strikers

ST: Alexandr Bukharov*

The players marked with * are important and established players.

Squad Analysis

Goalkeepers: A reasonably strong part of the squad for Rubin. First choice keeper is probably Sergey Ryzhikov. He is a good Goalkeeper for this division should and should keep you going for a few seasons. As you have 3 Goalies, I believe it’s probably best to get rid of one, I personally shipped out Kozko.

Defenders: The defence is quite weak. You will definitely need another Left Back and Right back, as well as a backup Centre Back. The left back you bring in should be a starter really. I would personally recommend Onismor Bhasera, who came in relatively cheap and plays most games. A back up right back is needed. Ansaldi is more than capable of playing there, but someone to fill in just in case of injury could be helpful. I would get rid of Salukvadze if possible and maybe look to loan out Balyaikin.

Midfielders: Another strong point. Depending on what formation you play, really has the key effect on where you need to strengthen. I didn’t sell any of my Midfield in the first transfer window as my formation required depth as you’ll see later on. I would recommend getting a protégé AMC to backup Dominguez, ideally someone who can be tutored. Try to only spend around £2m on this player as you’ll need something for strikers. I went with Michel from Valencia as he was young and transfer listed. He scored a hat-trick on his full debut and is a good impact sub.

Strikers: Very weak. With only 2 strikers in the squad, this section needs revamping. Kabze can be shipped out for around £2m, providing you with funds to bring in back-up. If you are playing 1 upfront, then only bring in back up, if you play 2, you’ll need 2 back-ups and a strike partner for Bukharov. I’d recommend playing one striker however, so you can get the best of your wonderful midfield. There is Vakhit Orazsakhedov in the Reserves, he would be a reasonable back up, but with a random PA, you can’t be too sure on how he will turn out.

Star Player-Alejandro Dominguez

Alejandro Dominguez (born 10th June, 1981 in Lanús, Argentina) is an Argentine footballer, who plays for FC Rubin Kazan. The 28 year old is the star man of your squad. His ideal position would be as an AMC playing as a Trequartista; however he is also fine with playing up front or on either wing. Don’t even consider selling him. Your first duty should be to sign him up to a new contract, which would expire at the end of 2009.

Additional Info

Finances: Secure

Estimated Value: £29.5m

Continental Competition: European Champions Cup

Media Prediction: 2nd

Training Facilities: Top training facilities

Youth Facilities: Average youth facilities

Transfer Budget

Title Challenge : £5.5m

Winner: £6.75m

Rules in the Russian League

In league and cup games, you can only have a maximum of 6 foreign players in the first 11. Foreign players are classed as anyone not Russian. Also, in the league, You have to have a minimum of 1 Russian player under the age of 22 in the match day squad.

The transfer windows occur at the following dates:

1st January 2009 - 12th March 2009

1st August 2009 - 31st August 2009

1st January 2010 - 12th March 2010

Recommended line-up and formation

This tactic is called the FM10 Sidewinder. Here is a link to the thread which is in the Tactics and Training Forum:

http://www.community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=156506

My Transfers

I think towards the end I got a bit carried away, especially with the loans and free transfers. I probably didn’t need Melli, Codrea, Mitea, Camara, or Makinwa, but I guess depth was my main focus.

Final Player Stats

As you can see, Dominguez had an absolute stormer of a season from AMC. Bukharov was terrible in the first half of the season, but form hit him at the second half and took him to second top scorer in my team. Not many goals from anywhere else, the other positions are mainly providers for the 2 main men.

Final League Table

I know that the league table doesn’t look great, but I wasn’t expecting to do that well. CSKA were the main team to beat, which I didn’t manage. I was confused when I saw that we had the same points as Saturn, but a higher goal difference, yet we were lower in the league. However in Russia Games Won is more important than Goal Difference, which explained it. Towards the end of the season, some silly losses to Rostov, Tom, and Amkar cost us dearly.

On the plus side, I did manage to win the Russian Cup, beating Dinamo Moscow 1-0 in the final thanks to a goal from Bukharov.

I will continue to post regular updates if there are people in here interested.

Why should you start a game with Rubin Kazan?

Can you retain the title?

Can you lead them on a respectful Champions League run?

Can you get the best out of Alejandro Dominguez?

There’s only one way to find out, take the challenge of leading Rubin Kazan.

First Thing To Do...

Your first and key priority is to tie down many of your key players to contracts, which will all expire at the end of the year. Dominguez, Semak, Sibaya, Ryanzantsev and Sharonov’s contracts are due to expire, and with these guys being key players, I’d recommend tying them down.

Nice Op post.

Well thought out and very constructive.

Looks a good challenge but will finish my benfica league before trying the Rubin challenge.

well done

Thanks, yeah it is a good challenge. It was one of the games I knew I wanted to try before the game was released. I\'ll post another update after this transfer window.

Nice Op!

Sergy Semak was fantastic cover in my first Arsenal season, a really great buy - tho his stats plummeted by the end of the season and I shipped him on, well worth 5Mill! (o and Tolstoy country ).

OK, so I just got to 12th March 2010. The transfer window was quite an active one for me, mostly fringe players coming in though. Got annoyed in there though. Adamov came back from a loan spell, and I realised he was quite good, so promoted him to first team, then the board intercept a bid and he\\\\\\\'s gone. Lucky I got a younger and almost just as good replacement in Kramaric.

So, here\\\\\\\'s my transfers:

And here\\\\\\\'s my current best 11:

The players missing off the bottom are Enakarhire, Kvirkvelia, Ryazantsev and Quincy.

Ive played 3 Europa league games so far, taking me to the 2nd knockout round, as well as the Super Cup, the league starts in a few days.

Sporting 1-3 Rubin Kazan- Matias Fernandez ; Neyra, Enakarhire, Dominguez

All our goals were in the second half, so a good fight back. Plus a debut goal for Neyra.

Rubin Kazan 0-1 Sporting- Djalo

Not fussed here, we still went through

CSKA Moscow 2-0 Rubin Kazan- Guillherme, Necid

So, yet again, I lost to CSKA in the Super Cup, they have an extraordinarily good squad.

Valencia 3-2 Rubin Kazan- Villa, Zigic, Alba; Bukharov, Colautti

We were 2-0, fough back to 2-2, then in the 86th minute, they snatched it. Hope to get a win at home. A debut goal for Collautti here.

Just played the first league game.

Rubin Kazan 1-1 Saturn Dominguez; Kovel

Amkar Perm 1-4 Rubin Kazan Peev; Kramaric x4

Nice full debut from Kramaric there, bit better than our first match.

Rubin Kazan 3-1 CSKA Moscow Gatagov x2, Kramaric; Guillherme

Alot better performance than in the Super Cup.

Sibir 0-3 Rubin Kazan Kramaric x 2, Dominguez

Rubin Kazan 2-0 Kuban Dominguez, Kramaric

Zenit 2-3 Rubin Kazan Kornilenko, Denisov; Kramaric, Kasaev, Dominguez

Spartak Nalchik 1-2 Rubin Kazan Samodin; Dominguez x2

Rubin Kazan 3-0 Anzhi Neyra, Bukharov, Kasaev

Tbh, I think this is going pretty darn good so far. Out of all the games we\\\'ve scored in, Kramaric or Dominguez have scored in all bar 2 of them. They seem as if they will be my key players this year.

After the Anzhi game came a tough run, 3 away games in Moscow against 3 different Moscow teams.

Moscow 0-2 Rubin Kazan Kramaric x2

Then, Dominguez picks up a 3 weeek knee injury.

Dinamo Moscow 3-0 Rubin Kazan Terekhov, Wilkshire, Kerzhakov

Spartak Moscow 4-2 Rubin Kazan Welliton x3, Putsilo; Kramaric, Michel

Rubin Kazan 1-0 Krylja Sovetov Kramaric

Dominguez will be fit for my next match, which I expect to win by a mile.

OK, just got past World Cup 2010 on my save now, obviously, that took a large chunk out of my season. Spain won it, beatint Ivory Coast on penalties.

Anyway, had a couple of players come in on frees on July 1st: Marc Muniesa, Javi Moreno and Borja Baston. All young Spanish players who came in from Barcelona, Osasuna and Atletico Madrid Respectively.

So, first game after WC2010 was a Russian Cup game against Terek. Muniesa and Baston were on the bench, hoping to make their debuts.

Terek 1-3 Rubin Kazan Jodlowiec; Kasaev, Baston x2

So, a great debut from 17 year old Baston, who rescued us with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes. He could be a real star.

Well, since that game against Terek, Ive played 15 more games.

Dominguez is now on 15 goals for the season from 31 starts.

Borja Baston is on 10 goals from 7 starts, 5 sub apps.

Kramaric is on 16 goals from 19 starts, 5 sub apps.

So, basically, I think Ive uncovered a new star here. I\'ll start a thread about him soon I think.

I currently sit 2nd in the league after 22 games on 48 points, CSKA are top on 51 points, so can be caught easily.

I also bought in a couple of new players.

Aykut Demir22 year old Dutch Centre Back. Came in from Genclerbirligi for £1.9m and is a rotating CB with Muniesa and Goni.

Yassine Al Ghanassy 20 year old Belgian Midfielder. Can play AML,AMC or AMR so bought in for cover. Came in from Atletico Madrid for £2.5m but looks like he starts at AA Gent.

Silviu Lung JR, someone I guess you all know. Felt it was time to get a new back up who could take over the GK position in the future.

This saw the departures of Revishvilli, Quincy, Sharonov, Enakarhire, Colautti, Rochina and Karadeniz.

really interesting, how is your reputation? can you bring in a better level of player yet? I play in ukraine a lot and until I win the champions league no one wants to play for Dinamo, regardless of how many domestic doubles I do.

It\'s reasonable. At the start I can sign Rafael VDV, so thats quite high. However I\'m in 2010 and a transfer listed Owen Hargreaves isnt interested.

I am thinking about starting a Russian League game and was wondering what other leagues your run alongside your russian league.

I only run the Russian league, but when choosing a custom database, load all players from Eastern European countries.

Do you know whats annoying, my save breaking. I\'ve lost it. I\'d reached 2011 about mid February and had a major crash dump, and it wont open now. I\'d just brought in Muniain, Ibrahim, Verratti, Torric, Zuculini, Ananidze and Assulin. The next wave of superstars. Borja Baston was gonna be huge!

Anyway, I\'ll fire up a new one now.

Ive decided to start a new save with Rubin, the first one was so fun, and when it dumped, I lost my motivation. Updates to come soon.

First transfers,i bought player mostly on 48 monts

~In : most of players bought on 48 months payment

~Out: we made some good money on Karadeniz,Balyalkin and Cesar Navas

~First 11 : i play Badelj on AMR but he got injured for 5 months

~First team overall stats

~League table

~Team stats

~Champions league group

I think that your transfers are ok, but I think you may have gone over the top slightly, you probably didnt need another right winger, especially with Ryazantsev and Kasaev, who are both good enough to play week in week out. Badelj would be better as a back up AMC. I also would have kept Cesar Navas, as he is one of the teams best players.

Well done on making 10m euros on Karadeniz.

I\\\'ll update you on my latest save this evening.

Problem is that Ryazantsev is injured for 8-10 weeks,and i will try to sell Badelj becaouse he is injuri prone (5 monts out now ),Kasaev is great but i need backup for him untiul Ryazantsev comes back.

Will be waiting for your update

Well, my update is only from June 09.

But I feel that I have started very well.

Here are my transfers in and out.

I also have Jordi Alba for £2.7m, Olexiy Gai for £3.1m, Adam Pinter for free and Eyal Golasa for £1.6m joining in August, and they will cost a combined £7.4m. This will see Macbeth Sibaya and Gokdeniz Karadeniz leave as Gai and Alba are straight swaps.

Golasa arriving will see Dare Vrsic\'s loan end, although he has done well when required. Pinter is a young player and will probably go out on loan as he cost nothing.

Here\'s the current league table.

As you can see, Ive played 11, won 10 and lost one. I was on a 10 win streak, but CSKA beat us 2-0 at their ground.

I cant fit the whole squad on a page, so I wont bother with stats, but Bukharov is my top scorer with 14 in just 11 appearances, followed by Gadir, Dominguez and Vrsic all on 4 goals.

Bukharov is also my top assister with 6, Ansaldi, Karadeniz, Dominguez and Vrsic all have 4.

My top average ratings are Bukharov on 7.90, Vrsic on 7.56(but he only has 10 appearances) and Dominguez on 7.29.

Oh my normal line up, almost forgot that.

What do ya think?

I really like Rubin Kazan and have followed them for a few seasons. I hope to eventually leave Lanús for Rubin if the job comes up.

Five more games till the end of RPL

Our last game against Dinamo Moscow

Good news

Are there any registration rules in Russia?

No registration rules, just starting lineup rules that are stated in the OP.

Also, on the next patch, Rubin will be without Alejandro Dominguez, as he\'s moved to Valencia on a free.

Trying this out and I am aiming for a bit of a long save.

Here are the first transfers, the transfer window has already closed and i played a couple of games but will be posting about results once i do a little more games.

Also here is my tactic and first eleven.(I'm using Mr Hough Complete Dominance for 10.2 http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=175981 )

Trying this out and I am aiming for a bit of a long save.

Here are the first transfers, the transfer window has already closed and i played a couple of games but will be posting about results once i do a little more games.

Also here is my tactic and first eleven.(I\'m using Mr Hough Complete Dominance for 10.2 http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=175981 )

Looking good there, how is Dominguez doing up front?

I never played him there, only as an AMC. I do feel the team works better with wingers, Karadeniz, Bystrov, Kasaev and Ryazantsev are all top notch players.

Actually since that update i had Kasaev suspended once and i moved Dominguez at AMC and he scored 3 that game and i have played him there ever since. Also Hasan Kabze has been more than decent for me.

Answering your question he is not bad up front however i prefer him as AMC now.

Kabze\'s usually a reasonable player, but you can sell him for £5m to fund for other things. So potentially, sell Kabze, and bring in 2 other strikers to replace him. I\'d reccommend Seydou Doumbia and maybe a young player like Borja Baston.

Well time for an update although seems as though i'm the only one doing it still.

After 14 straight wins in all competitions we lost in the final of the Russian Cup 2-0 against Dinamo Moscow.

Below is the League Table after 15 games. The 2 draws and 1 loss are the last 3 results we got thus we seem to have met our first slump and whenever Semak doesn't feature the team can't seem to perform and thus an equal DMC is on the way and it's Anthony Annan of Rosenborg.

Also if anyone can, i need some help for a Russian striker (Bukharov is out for 4 months) and any good Russian Left and Right backs. It's important that they are Russian because of the maximum of 6 foreigners.

RB= Kiril Nababkin

ST= Nikita Andreev

For a Left Back, as you have Ansaldi playing there, you should only need a back up, who could be non Russian, so Peter Masilela or Onismor Bhasera would be a good option.

Well now the transfer window has closed. thx Suggy33 for your help however i only brought Andreev from the players mentioned as i am trying to spend what i sell. (I like to have an economically stable club)

Kramaric is on a 12-month loan deal during which i can buy him for €2m.

Anyway below is a screenshot of the transfers.

Also worth mentioning in the CL i have been drawn along with Milan, Porto and Anderlecht which is pretty good considering i'm fourth seed and except for Milan i don't have giants and maybe have a shot at going through.

Andreev doesnt look to great, and is usually trasnfer listed, but on my current save, he\'s scoring alot of goals from the bench.

Kramaric is great, if you read further up, you\'ll see that he did awesome for me in my first save.

Good deals there, but I feel you could\'ve got alot more for Karadeniz, Ive managed to sell him for £8m+ before, same with Kabze, I can usually sell him for £5m.

I\'m currently on a 50 game unbeaten streak in domestic competitions (Russian Premier Division, Russian Super Cup and Russian Cup).

Ive only been defeated twice in the whole save so far, once to Liverpool and once to Juventus in the Champions league.

I\'m not on it at the moment, but I beleive I\'m at March 2010.

Andreev should become as good as Dominguez as a striker accourding to my scout, i doubt that but may turn up decent. I read through almost all the thread tbh and that's where i found about Kramaric.

Karadeniz wasn't playing at all and his value was slowly decreasing Kabze however was doing well but i had to offer him to clubs. However i've been noticing that it seems easier to sell on this game than on FM09 and easier to sell at a price higher than the players value.

Well done Suggy on the amazing unbeaten run, what tactic are you using or it's yours?

Since you have a 42-match unbeaten it must be working pretty well for you.

The same tactic that I reccommend in the second post, the FM Sidewinder.

Is anyone still playing as Rubin?

I'm struggling to find decent scouts or coaches, is anyone else having the same problem?

Just started a game with them. These are my signings for the first season.

Looking good there Andora, some good buys.

Jimbo, I never do any coaches or staff, so I cant help you there, sorry!

Why is there such an amazing popularity for Rubin?

Is it because the win at the Nou Camp or what?

I'd seen that they'd won the Russian League, and I'd never heard of them, then heard about Dominguez and how he had a wonderful goalscoring record, so thought I'd give it a go, but Dominguez has lesft now

Right, well Ive just started another Rubin save, on a database which includes most of the Russian transfers (done by Forbsie) and a fully updated Rubin squad (edited by me). I have made several data changes, these inlcude CA/PA boosts for some of the younger players, aswell as a couple of CA boosts for new, real life signings.

The new, real life signings who were given slight boosts in ability were: Bibras Natkho, Jordi, Ilie Cebanu and Bahodir Nasimov (these players are all in the first team squad for Rubin, so I gave them CA's that would reflect their real life squad status).

I gave CA/PA boosts to Mikhail Mischenko, Andrey Gorbanets, Igor Portnyagin, Vagiz Gailulin, Mikhail Badyautinov, Ilsur Samigullin, Vladimir Dyadyun and Eugeny Cheremisin.

Mischenko, Gorbanets and Gailulin are all making the Rubin first 11 or squad currently, and their CA/PA's in 10.3 didnt reflect this, so these players are now comfortable squad players.

Portnyagin, Samigullin and Badyautinov are all listed in Rubin's first team squad, and even though they are rarely picked for the team, they do have reasonable ability and potential, so I have made the decent back-ups with ability to become first teamers.

Dyadyun is out on loan at fellow Russian team Spartak Nalchik, and he is playing week in, week out, so I have given him a boost in CA so that he will can play (though I forgot to put him on loan in my custom database :o)

Summary on new players

A major loss in the patch is the aforementioned Dominguez, but Rubin have compensated with the addition of Israeli midfielder Bibras Natkho. He is a creative AMC and is easily good enough to start, although you have the very talented Alan Kasaev who would be my first choice in an AMC spot if you choose to play with one.

Ilie Cebanu is a Moldovan GK who arrived from Polish club Wisla Krakow, he is rated about the same as first choice keeper Ryzhikov, but after a year or so, I'd expect Cebanu to be your first choice between the posts (if you choose not to bring in another keeper).

Jordi is a Spanish CB who arrived from Spanish club Celta Vigo. He easily slots into the empty spot that Stepjan Tomas and Alexey Popov when they left. He is probably a decent enough back-up for the time being, but with Sharonov getting on, Jordi and Cesar Navas could form a formidable back 2.

Uzbekistani striker Bahodir Nasimov joined Rubin from Uzbek club FK Samarqand. He had previously spent last year at rich Uzbek club Bunyodkor on loan, where he scored only 2 goals in 16 games, but his previous goalscoring record of 22 in 52 appearances was enough for Rubin to pounce. He's no where near your 2 best strikers, but can be a handy back up.

Finally, Fatih Tekke joined Rubin from Zenit. The veteran striker has a good goalscoring record in Russia, and was brought in to try and score some of the goals that Dominguez usually would have. Your best striker in the squad, lets hope he can shine for you.

My Save

I started my save with the sale of Roman Adamov, he has no place in my squad (he should actually be out on loan, but again I forgot, this was a factor for my decision to sell him). I then shipped out Alexandr Orekhov, while letting Ilsur Samigullin go out on loan. Eugeny Balyaikin, Vitaly Kaleshin, Mikhail Badyautinov and Petr Bystrov [/b ]are all going out on loan, with a view to a transfer in the future.

This lead me to look at what I needed to add to my squad. I knew that whatever I did, I wanted to bring in players with Russian nationality, due to the strict guidelines in Russia. My main target was a back-up LB, followed by an emergency MC and AMC.

For the LB position, I snapped up 21 year old Uzbek international Vitaly Denisov from Dnipro for £475k. He has a Russian second nationality, so fits the bill, and as an added bonus, he has 19 for long throws, so hopefully I can get him to bullet those into the box.

For the MC position, I signed Moldovan international Serghei Kovalchuk on a free transfer. Again he has Russian second nationality so is fine for my squad, but he is very experienced and has played at a very good level, having just been released from Spartak Moscow.

Finally for the AMC position, I signed Kazakhstani international Nikita Khoklhov on a free transfer. Again, like the previous 2, he has a second nationality. He is experienced, and looks like he'll do a decent job if we really need him.

If anyone would be interested in my updated Rubin database, I'll happily upload it so you can give Rubin Kazan a go.

First competitve game of the season, the Russian Super Cup, which ended in a narrow 1-0 loss to CSKA. We had our chances, but to no avail.

Just got through the first 4 league games, and all's going swimmingly.

Rubin 5-1 Rostov

Bukharov x2, Noboa, Portnyagin, Semak ; Gatcan

Spartak Nalchik 0-2 Rubin Kazan

Semak, Gorbanets

Rubin Kazan 1-0 Dinamo Moscow

Kasaev

Khimki 1-0 Rubin Kazan

But

That last game was disappointing, tried a different formation, with a different mentality, it didnt pay off.

I think I'll keeping posting updates as of every 4 games, seems nice and regular.

Rubin Kazan 3-1 Sibir Novosibirsk (Russian Cup Qtr Final)

Pavlihhin, Mischenko, Gorbanets ; Medvedev

Rubin Kazan 0-0 Tom Tomsk

FC Moscow 0-4 Rubin Kazan

Karadeniz, Ansaldi, Cesar Navas, OG

Kylja Sovetov 1-4 Rubin Kazan

Bober; Karadeniz x2, Khagush, Cesar Navas (Karadeniz missed penalty x2)

So easily could have had more in that last game. I'm quite pleased with my progress, usually I buy loads of foreign talent, but I bought Russian players and use players from our Youth system, and they're coming along nicely.

Right, so our next 4 games didnt go very well at all. We hit a real purple patch, and lost Sharonov and Noboa to long term injuries. This combined with 120 minutes, meant we were tired for the Saturn game.

Tom Tomsk 2-2 Rubin Kazan: 0-0 AET, 4-3 on Penalties (Russian Cup Semi Final)

Zinovjev, El Mohammady ; Noboa, Bukharov

Rubin Kazan 0-2 Saturn

Vorobjov, Kovel

Zenit St Petersburg 0-0 Rubin Kazan

Rubin Kazan 2-0 Amkar Perm

Natkho, Mischenko

I did manage to arrange a few signings for the Summer Transfer Window, which opens on 1st August 2009. Only one of these will go straight into my squad, and that is Malawian striker Essau Kanyeda from First Divison club KamAZ for £1m. I need some firepower up front, and he has 8 goals in 8 appearances so far, so I'll give him a shot. He also has Russian second nationality, which is a bonus.

I also managed to bring in 16 year old striker Marat Gubzhev from Spartak Nalchik for £2.8m, 17 year old winger Irakly Logua from Dinamo Moscow for £4.4m and 18 year old North Korean midfielder Yu Yong-Lee from Serbian side Napredak for £500k.

The latter 3 will either go out on loan or into the reserves, then when the next season comes round, I'll put them in the first team.

No-one interested in playing as Rubin then

Lining up deals to sign Vasily Berezeutskiy and Oh Jang-Eun (he's not a certainty, and if he rejects, will be looing at Fredrik Stromsad of Le Mans) at the minute, will do a more thorough update tomorrow at some point

Heh, guess I won't do an update tomorrow.

After becoming bored of other saves, I decided to try with Rubin again.

I let go of Lasha Salukvadze, Alexandr Orekhov and Roman Sharonov for a combined £4m, with 4 players leaving on loans, with a view to a transfers, they were Leonid Musin, Roman Adamov, Andrey Gorbanets and Petr Bystrov.

Another player to depart, was Hasan Kabze, who left in a P/Ex deal for Real Sociedad defender Mikel Gonzalez, the deal also involved me paying £4.1m.

Maxim Skavysh came in from BATE Borisov for £240k, a young talented AMC, who will provide good competition for Natkho.

Dawid Janczyk then came in from CSKA Moscow for £5m. A wonderful young striker who will hopefully do better than Fatih Tekke, who never performs well for me. I would have sold Fatih, but as he's just joined, no-one would have offered.

Finally young Russian left back Gia Grigalava joined for £190k. Ansaldi is my main left back, but I need someone to cover, and he has good enough potential to play when needed.

IF anyone is interested in playing with an updated Rubin squad, don't hesitate, and I will upload my custom .xml file.

I've had some mixed results in the starting weeks of my Rubin career.

Started off with the Russian Super Cup, a drab 0-0 draw, which we won 5-4 on penalties, that's trophy number 1.

Next up was Kuban, who I was expecting to crush, but a late goal and sending off made this a draw.

Kuban 1-1 Rubin Kazan

Zicu 91; Janczyk 24, Kaleshin sent off 96

Rubin Kazan 4-0 FC Moscow

Skavysh 17, Noboa 21, Karadeniz 65, Own Goal 68

Amkar Perm 0-1 Rubin Kazan

Karadeniz 64

Rubin Kazan 2-2 Saturn Ramenskoye

Semak Pen 10, Tekke 36; Topic 45, Igonin 87

Rubin Kazan 3-1 Sibir Novosibirsk (Russian Cup Qtr Final)

Sibaya 53, Bukharov 77, Orazsakhedov 93; Antipenko 8

Dinamo Moscow 2-1 Rubin Kazan

Kolodin 31, Voronin 34; Noboa 90

Rubin Kazan 2-0 Tom Tomsk

Bukharov 72, Karadeniz 96

Krylja Sovetov 0-2 Rubin Kazan

Khagush 10, Gonzalez 21

Just the one loss, my own fault really. Young Turkmenistan striker Vakhit Orazsakhedov had impressed during the Russian Cup, so I started him against Dinamo Moscow, and he was way out of his depth, not being able to keep up with the play or make space for himself. I'm sure he can become a good player for me, and as I've never developed him before, will be interesting to see how good I can make him.

Just a few minutes after this post, and this happens

Tom Tomsk 2-1 Rubin Kazan (Russian Cup Semi Final)

Skoblyakov 12,16; Natkho 49

Lost for words how we didnt win tbh.