The Fall of Dinamo Moscow

They lay in 14th, level on points with the relegation zone. This wouldn’t be much of a concern for the fans if this was the start of the season. But it isn’t. 18 games have been played.

“We’ll be fine, we’ll gain some form” the fans tell each other, trying to breed confidence into their souls. They know they’re fighting a lost cause though. There is only so long they can convince themselves they’ll get out of this mess. Time is running out.

The weeks pass by and so do the games. And yet, they’re no closer to safety. With six games left, they’re second bottom.

But four wins in their last five games gives them safety. The fans breathe a huge sigh of relief. “We’re never going to be in this position again!” they jokingly say to each other as they feel their heart come to forefront of their chest again.

Whilst those fans quickly forced their catastrophic season to the back of their minds, a decade later, Dinamo Moscow would be in the same position. Only, it would end in relegation.

The fall of the remaining team

The mismanagement of Dinamo Moscow over the past 15 years has been extraordinary. You would need several notepads to write down the amount of directors, managers, staff and players the club has been through.

It’s an easy misconception, watching Russia from afar, to assume to relegation of Dinamo is only severe. But it is more the severe.

Dinamo were the last remaining club in Russia to have not been relegated from the first division. Founded in 1923, they haven’t fallen from the top once - not even during the formation of the Soviet Union.

Though many will argue their success since the collapse of the Soviet Union hasn’t been noteworthy (and it hasn’t been, they have just one Russian Cup to their name), they became the face of Soviet Union football, ending as the third most decorated side behind Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv.

When they toured in England in 1945, they swept the ground with their evolutionary style of football. And, if that isn’t enough, then one name will be - Lev Yashin. The only keeper to have won the Ballon d’Or, he spent his entire career at Dinamo.

Short sighted

Come the commence of the 2015/16 season, Dinamo played the following players in their first game against Zenit; Mathieu Valbuena, Yuri Zhirkov, Igor Denisov, Aleksey Ionov, Balazs Dzsudzsak, Aleksandr Kokorin. Only two of these players would remain by the following May.

Zenit looked rusty, but Dinamo looked like a threat and despite the the defeat, things weren’t as bad as they might have first considered to be.

The summer of 2015 was turmoil for the Blue-Whites. Having failed Financial Fair Play, the club were stripped of their Europa League place in the following season and in July, Sporting Director Guram Adzhoyev resigned from his position. The main reason Dinamo failed FFP was due to the extraordinary spending Adzhoyev oversaw. During his two years at the club, he brought in over €90m worth of players. His return? €800,000.

Next out of the club was Boris Rotenberg, the president of Dinamo, who was kicked out by owner and main sponsor VTB Bank for the poor return of their investment. Who could blame them? After forking out over a €150m, all Dinamo had to show for it was three 4th place finishes. Part of the reason for Dinamo’s FFP punishment was VTB Bank’s double role, and so they promised to sell the club back to the Dinamo Sports Society.

Due to the FFP problems, Dinamo spent most of their summer trying to get rid of their expensive players, in what looked like a regular fire sale, rather than strengthening the squad,

Despite their inability to rebuild their squad, the Moscow club were faring well by the end of August. Seven games played, one defeat - they were sitting well in 5th.

Andrey Kobelev, who had previously managed Dinamo for four years between 2006 and 2010, had decided on a project. The lack of squad depth gave him a perfect pathway (or forced him) into introducing and offering playing time to Dinamo’s youth players. And they were thriving.

But after August, things went downhill. Their bright and optimistic start started to falter and Dinamo were losing ground. Kobelev started to change the tactics - 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 were all used yet nothing would kickstart the team.

Looking back, maybe that was the fault. Kobelev, who had given the fans some spectacular football during his first spell back in 2007. His constant changing of the tactics never allowed the players to settle into a system or an individual role. Several Russian journalists started to criticise him, questioning why he was trying to force his team to play intricate football when he knew he didn’t have to the players to do it.

Time past and so did the points. It wasn’t long until the players turned against him. Igor Denisov spoke out.

It wasn’t the first time the Russian had been vocal in his displeasure against a club’s running. In the previous season, he had been sent to the reserves after he called Stanislav Cherchesov a clown in front of the team. Whilst At Zenit, he criticised the clubs transfer policy after the signings of Axel Witsel and Hulk.

Like before, Denisov was sent to train with the reserves. Taking advantage of hindsight, whilst the Russian might be a controversial character, he certainly had a point. The club were faltering and they needed to change the coach. Kobelev’s objectives were wrong - he should have been aiming to keep the club in the division. He was blinded by his vision to get his team playing football.

The winter break came and Dinamo came out a weakened side. Zhirkov and Kokorin, both who had been consistent in a dismissal season so far were sold to Zenit.

Dinamo sat five points above the dreaded relegation zone. They had won one game since August. Their fears of relegation were reduced when they beat Ufa on match day 20. They were six points clear of relegation.

Just like 10 years ago, Dinamo had come so far in a season and banked on themselves to have been out of the danger by now. But they weren’t. They had to admit they were in a relegation battle.

The results crippled, and after a 4-1 defeat to Krasnodar in early April, keeper Vladimir Gabulov spoke out:

“The first thing I want to say - we suffered a humiliating defeat, and the responsibility for it lies with all players who were on the field, and the coaching staff.”

“In fact, this was the first time we played five defenders. This tactic, as well as any new tactic must be trained. The communications and actions of the players need to be fluid, and each player needs to understand their individual role within the team.”

“I think that the critical remarks and views from our players should be heard and told - either in front of the team or in a personal conversation.”

The words from Gabulov were an attempt, clearly, to reinvigorate the team and inspire them to collect points from their remaining games to ensure their Premier League status. But more interestingly, these words had been echoed from Denisov’s speech to the club’s management earlier on in the season.

At the end of April, Dinamo faced Spartak in what is considered Russia’s oldest derby. Having lost the game 3-0, Kobelev blamed bad luck for his sides poor season - a theory backed up by his full-back, Andrey Eshchenko.

And, with Dinamo losing 3-0, the club sacked Kobelev. The responsibility of maintaining the club’s status in Russia’s top flight was given to Sergey Chikishev.

“Preparation for the match was very short - one training, one theoretical lesson,” Chikishev said ahead of his first game against title-chasing Rostov. “ There was a lot of talking before the game with the guys. It was necessary to find the words to motivate the players so that they will find strength to win this game.”

The outcome was no different. A 3-1 defeat brought them even closer to Russia’s second tier.

“I think it’s in psychology. We conceded a second goal after two individual mistakes, it broke down us.” Chikishev admitted after the defeat. Dinamo were on their knees. The damage had been done. Psychologically, it was an enormous way back and with two games left, relegation was looming even larger.

It was all but confirmed the following week when they lost to Kuban, who were 15th going into the game against Dinamo. A 1-0 defeat meant the Blue-Whites had to beat Zenit at home the following week.

Dinamo forums were flooded with passionate messages - some longer and more explicit than others, telling the players to give their all to keep their beloved club in the league. Any chance a fan got to tell a player or the club, they would do so, showing how much it would hurt them as a fan to see their club relegated.

It was too late though. A 3-0 defeat condemned their worse fear. The club, who had avoided this exact fate a decade ago, had failed.

Previous mistakes have been replicated

In 2006, Dinamo went on a spending spree. Determined to earn their position at the table with Russia’s top dogs, they brought an extraordinary 13 players from Portugal, with the only ones classified as a success being Danny (who would later be sold onto Zenit) and Derlei (top scorer for the club in ‘05 and ‘06).

Their money splashing antics would be a spectacular failure as they marginally avoided relegation in the 2006 season.

They revamped, sold and loaned all the failed exports and brought in replacements - carefully. Over the next few seasons, between 2007 and 2010 under Kobelev, Dinamo played some of the best football in Russia. Their attacking force of Danny, Kirill Kombarov and Igor Semshov managed to seal Champions League qualification.

Rosenberg and VTB Bank’s arrival in 2009 saw Dinamo’s plans change yet again. Money was once again the club’s main attraction and cash was thrown about in an attempt to gatecrash the top of the league. As previously touched upon, it was a failure.

The most ironic thing was Dinamo’s spending in the summer of 2014.

Anzhi Makhachkala owner Sulymen Kerimov withdrew funding in August. No one knew quite why, but two reasons started to circulate - his stock had fallen in value; but the club were also expected to fail FFP.

Immediately the club started to sell their biggest starts and, happily, Dinamo took several on them on including the controversial Igor Denisov, Alexsandr Kokorin (who had been their striker about 20 days previously) and Christopher Samba.

The mystifying thing about this was that Dinamo must have known, sometime down the line, they would experience the same problems suffer by Anzhi. The players wages hadn’t dropped from Anzhi - if anything, several players were given wage hikes.

The spending spree had but massive pressure on Dan Petrescu to bring Champions League football to the club. But as soon as the club didn’t see it possible, they sacked him and brought in Stanislav Cherchesov.

It might have been the summer of 2015 that Dinamo realised that this had to be a season of glory, otherwise they would suffer the same fate of Anzhi. And that fate they did suffer. Having failed to qualify for the Champions League, a last 16 appearance in the Europa League wasn’t enough for the club to pass FFP.

Ironic even more that Anzhi were relegated the same season they sold off all of their players. Though Dinamo arguably had a better squad, they failed to stay up too.

What the future holds

Denisov, Gabulov and Ionov have previously said they wouldn’t leave the club if Dinamo were relegated. But that was then, and this now. All three have expiring contracts this summer and with a host of clubs continuously struggling to hold their finances together in the FNL, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them all leave. Unless they want to play for £500 a week.

Several young players broke through this season for Dinamo and they will be expected to stay at the club next season, even in a lower division. Yuri Semin has been touted as the next manager and has reportedly held talks with Dinamo.

An immediate promotion back to the Premier League sounds likely, but several teams in recent years have gone down and haven’t come back up at their first attempt. I wouldn’t bank on them making an immediate return.

Dinamo are scheduled to open up their new stadium next year, named after Lev Yashin, their greatest son. But I doubt he would approve of Dinamo’s first competitive match being played in their new ground, to be played in the FNL. Or as his widow said after the last game of the season was played: “It’s good that he didn’t see Dinamo Moscow’s first ever relegation”.

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