Promes taking on star status in Russia following Hulk departure

As Hulk said goodbye to Zenit Saint Petersburg this summer, Russian football was hurting. The national side had returned from Euro 2016 humiliated, with coach Leonid Slutskiy despondent. On Slutskiy’s return to CSKA Moscow, Ahmed Musa, the club’s main striker, let it be known that he was preparing to move to Leicester City. 

Russian football was losing another one of its stars. But, unlike Hulk, Musa was leaving for England and Premier League champions Leicester, an understandable step up. Hulk, the Russian Premier League’s best player, was heading to China, to a league and a team that, as yet, had failed to make a dent in the Russian consciousness. 

With Hulk and Musa gone, much of the Russian media’s summer focus fell onto Spartak Moscow, Rostov and the pantomime being played out with Kurban Berdyev. Spartak had sacked Dmitriy Alenichev after being knocked out of the Europa League at the qualifying stage, with Berdyev then resigning from his position at Rostov, ostensibly to negotiate a deal with Spartak. 

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Those negotiations came to a halt, with Berdyev also talking to Lokomotiv Moscow before heading back to Rostov in an advisory capacity on the club’s board. With Spartak unable to agree a deal with Berdyev, they turned to Massimo Carrera, recently brought in as a coach from Antonio Conte’s Italy staff. Currently top of the league with 19 points from 8 games, Spartak are yet to look back. 

Yet the attention given to the Berdyev saga could only temporarily mask the drain of quality that the departures of Hulk and Musa had provided. The Russian Premier League needed a new star and, as Carrera was set to find out on taking over at Spartak, Quincy Promes was ready in waiting. 

Much like Spartak, Promes has been sensational this season. In 8 league games, the Dutch international has 5 goals and 5 assists, earning 4 man of the match awards from WhoScored.com and a rating of 8.26, the highest in the league. Put simply, there is no player in Russia capable of matching him. 

Goals were prevalent in his game last season, with 18 in the league, but Promes has now outgrown even those feats. It looks, at times, like the game is too easy for him, the defenders too slow, unable to comprehend what he might do next, never mind try and react to stop it. 

Promes provides Spartak with their best chance of winning a league since 2001. There decline has been testing, with five second placed finishes and 14 managerial changes since their last title. Promes, though, gives them hope. 

They may still not be strong enough, with awkward defeats like the 1-0 loss to Ufa enough to cripple their title bid. Zenit and CSKA are not perfect but their experience of the rigours of a title race may hold them in good stead. Spartak, in recent history, are new to this. 

Fifteen years without a title is a huge amount of time for the most supported club in Russia, with the mentality of struggling giants not easy to cast off. However, the next set of fixtures provides Spartak and Promes with an opportunity to gauge their real quality, to demonstrate that the giants of Russian football are ready to become genuine giants again. 

On Sunday, they travel to Hulk’s former lair, for a crucial encounter with Zenit St Petersburg in the Russian equivalent of the Clasico. Zenit, along with CSKA Moscow, one of the favourites for the title at the start of the season, are the most formidable side that Spartak have faced yet. 

Another defeat could suggest that the loss to Ufa was not a blip, that Spartak’s start to the season was a bout of good form that will give way to mediocrity. But a win would consolidate Spartak’s position at the top of the table, proving them the real deal. 

For that to happen, Promes will have to perform. The biggest games call for the best players.

Can Promes fire Spartak Moscow to a long overdue title? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below