Russian club Zenit St Petersburg have sacked coach Dick Advocaat following a run of disappointing results.
Zenit
suggested that the 61-year-old's decision to become Belgium coach at
the end of the season may have contributed to the side's recent poor
run of form. "The club's leadership and board of directors have decided to dismiss Dick Advocaat," read a statement. Advocaat took over in 2006 and led Zenit to Uefa Cup glory in 2008 with a 2-0 win over his former club Rangers. The
Zenit statement continued: "Dick Advocaat has done a lot for the team
and his name will forever be associated with the success Zenit has
achieved over the past few seasons. "Under his leadership, many
new glorious pages in Zenit's history have been written and fans will
never forget the title-winning season of 2007 and the team's
magnificent performance in Europe in 2008.
"Unfortunately, after deciding to take on the role of national coach
of the Belgian national team, Zenit's performances have deteriorated
notably and neither the fans nor the club's leadership are satisfied
with the league position the club finds itself in." Zenit made
the decision to dismiss the former Netherlands coach after a 2-0 home
defeat by lowly Tom Tomsk. It was Zenit's fourth league game without a
win and has resulted in the club dropping to seventh in the table. Last
week, Advocaat criticised the club's new sporting director, former
Russia international Igor Korneev, for his role in the signing of
midfielder Alessandro Rosina from Torino.
The Dutchman said he "no longer wanted to work with Korneev" after he was not consulted over the signing of the Italian. In
the past year, Advocaat had also lost key players such as Andrey
Arshavin, Anatoly Tymoschuk and Pavel Pogrebniak and was reported to be
frustrated that adequate replacements had not been found. Youth team manager Anatoly Davydov will take temporary charge of the first team.
