Wednesday, 19th June, 2013
Lokomotiv Moscow have moved quickly to replace coach Slaven Bilic, who left the club yesterday, by appointing Leonid Kuchuk to the dugout.
Former Everton and West Ham player Bilic was given the reigns last year but failed to deliver, with the club only finishing ninth in the table, their worst finish in 22 years.
Bilic, who previously managed the Croatian national team, was shown the door by mutual consent yesterday, with Kuchuk named in his stead.
The 44-year-old had arrived in Moscow with the reputation of achieving big things with underdogs, having led Croatia to the quarter-finals and the last 16 of the European Championship in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
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Kuchuk, meanwhile, boasts as many as six titles with Moldovan club FC Sheriff between 2004 and 2010, and is set to begin work in the Russian capital from July onwards.
Most recently, he led Kuban Krasnodar to a Europa League berth in the Russian Premier League with a fourth-placed finish.
Former Lokomotiv Moscow reserve side coach Vladimir Maminov insists Bilic’s departure could not be seen in the cold light of numbers alone, despite the unexpected finish to the season.
He told Izvestia: "I think there are both objective and subjective reasons for this. If the tasks were not fulfilled by the coach, then probably it was natural [for him to leave].
"But in order to judge objectively, you need to be in command. I watched him work, but I was myself working with another group, so there is nothing concrete that I can say about it."
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