Welcome to Odessa

Welcome to Vladivostok


The name Vladivostok loosely translates from Russian as "the ruler of the East"


Vladivostok is a city and the center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea.
The city is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean.

The Club

Luch (Vladivostok)

The Manager

Andriy Voronin

Our Home

10,000 seater stadium (Dinamo)
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Here we are in Vladivostok, Russia on the borders of Asia, home of Luch who currently play in the 2nd division of Russian Football.

Based in the far east of the country, their location poses a significant problem for away teams. 9 Hours by flight from Moscow.

When playing Zenit St Petersberg at home, a trio of Zenit fans drove 15,000 km across the country only for their car to break down when in Vladivostok, leaving them unable to drive home. These fans thus took the Trans Siberian Railway back to St Petersberg. Upon which the club rewarded them with a new car on October 1, 2006.

There has been much controversy about whether the Russian league should be split into two leagues, An East & West division, however this is yet to happen.
Igor Akinfeev, the CSKA Moscow goalkeeper, said that "they should play in the Japanese League", when his team lost 4-0 after a seven hour flight.

Former Ukrainian International Andriy Voronin has been offered his first role in management after a stint of coaching and his first step is to take Luch to the top flight of Russian football.

As we are so close to the like of Korea, China & Japan I'm hoping we can attract a few talents from those country's. I'd also like to see how we fare in European competition one day with how far we are from the rest of Europe.



So that's how far out east we are from everyone else, but still counted as a european football team. Before we need to worry about any of that though we have a big challenge in getting out of the Russian 2nd division.

Looking forward to this challenge and getting to know the club!

Looking forward to seeing how this goes. All the best.

Could have some lengthy travelling time in European away games! Good start mate

Season 1





We have a fairly decent value and balance, also a decent sized stadium for a second division but with the media putting us in 12th for the end of the season were not predicted to be puling any trees down this time around.

Looking at the squad it's very average with not many stand out players for this division so it's going to be a very tough season. With what i have seen on day one i have put the squad together as below but with hardly any quality about in any of the positions i'll be straight into the free transfer market. This 60k budget isn't going to stretch very far..

Cheers mate, looking forward seeing how it goes!



I was thinking the exact same when i was researching the story. Looks like I'm going to be a while off europe but it will be very interesting when we get to that point.

What database size have you loaded? When I've managed in Asia in the past (which you basically are) I've managed to pick up some great players for next to nothing from Kazakhstan, Australia, Iraq, Iran, etc

Just be smart with your scouting, you're better off targeting individual countries rather than whole regions as scouts can be wasting their time in backwaters with no players.

Finding it difficult to get a pre-season going. My board won't even sanction any away trips to other Russian sides and most of them want massive fee's more than we will make back to travel to us.

I wonder if any Chinese or Korean teams will visit us.

Im currently on a large database with players from S. Korea, China & Japan loaded. i'll definitely try and focus on some of those countries you mentioned though, see what i can find!

The only thing which is holding back in that department at the minute though is in the 2nd division a squad can only have 3 foreigners in the first 11 at one time, so although there's a few decent finds outside of Russia it's going to be hard to give them all game time.

Aye I used to have to combat similar rules in Korea, usually I'd just make sure I had a great core. So if I were you I'd be looking at 1 great CB, 1 great MC and 1 great ST. 4 or 5 foreigners tops as you can just sub in the other guys to give them their time without going over the limit.

In Korea I was struggling that bad to find a decent foreign Asian player (they have a designated slot for one extra Asian player in your squad), I ended up going through all the national + youth teams of the Asian teams and scouting all of their players. It was a bitch of a process but really did throw up some great prospects.

Worst comes to worst 100% target Scandinavia and some of the weaker Eastern European nations, there are always bargains to be found.

Cheers for the advice mate, so far i've come across a few good foreigners who will come on a free transfer and low wage but it's the quality Russians which are lacking at the minute. Considering i need 8 in my team at all times I'm going to need to get some decent ones in, which is looking to be a tough task so far.

Season 1 - 29/6/14

After struggling with getting any sort of domestic friendlies going, the club arranged a tour of Turkey which would also look to bring in some income with me arranging games against tough teams, but which would bring in at least 60k per game. With the friendlies sorted i stepped up the fitness training and made sure we drilled on defending and attacking. All whilst our chairman worked to get the players i wanted signed for the new season.



Not the best results, and maybe not the best decision playing against some difficult teams but it's some much needed minutes under the belt for our squad. With contract talks still on-going i didn't manage to get any new signings in for these games either.

In just 7 days time we travel to Volga for my first game in charge at Luch.


Preperation nearly complete

Season 1 - 4/7/14



''Voronin looks to homeland for reinforcements''





A veteran of a keeper coming in for some quality between the sticks and i was made up to find Azatskyi was happy to join us on loan from Kiev for no cost at all, a step above my current Russian centre backs.

Also happy to join us on loan from Kiev was Diego Suarez who again is a level above anything we have up top at the moment.



All three are labelled as key players for our division, the only issue I'm going to have is getting them all in the team at once.

With only a few more days until our first game i needed to push on with the last few signings.


Just a few more contracts to print off

Season 1 - 6/7/14

Finally it's here, the first day of the new season. We have worked hard on fitness and tactics in the pre season so hopefully it can pay off today.



A great start! From the first minute we were all over them and every attack looked like it could be a goal. We pushed on the second half but i wanted to rest a few key players so took them off just after half time. Really happy we have come away with a win and the 3 goals, i thought it was going to be a much tighter game before kick off.

Another new signing Goore looked great at left back and did a job in the 2nd half on the left wing.



If we can play how we did today for the rest of the season i see no problem in us going straight up but let's just take it one game at a time.

A good start to competitive football that is mate! Some good signings made as well!

Season 1 - 1/12/14

Apart from the 3 players i posted up earlier not much more business was done other than a few fringe Russian players on free transfers to help with the foreigner rule.

I also found that this league allows 4 subs in a match which has been helpful and player wage is capped at a max of £675 p/w.

Just before the window shut my Chief Scout did mention a striker available and after a week's trial he was offered a contract, looks great quality for the league and is rated as a good player for the premier division.



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Now at the winter break where we finish for 3 months until March, we sit in 6th position no too far off the play-offs.



We found it very difficult to get things going in our first 10 matches or so. Apart from the odd win here and there we weren't scoring at all and were looking terrible at the back.

I focussed on ramping training up on defending and also switching the philosophy to structured which seemed to turn us around and put us on a good little run. In most matches we are dominating possession but the lack of quality in the team still comes through at some points.



I hoped we could have a decent go at the cup but after losing 2 players to injury in extra time and having to carry on with 9 men we were put out by a poor side in our division, this may be a blessing in disguise which gives us a chance to fully focus on promotion.

Season 1 - 8/3/15

After a long winter break i knew i had to get another mini pre-season on the go again and get it right this time. So i arranged matches with local amateur sides to get fitness back up and a bit of morale heading into the 2nd half of the season.



In terms of the transfer window we didn't have much money to spend, 11k to be exact. So it was off to the free transfer market to check if any better players are interested in joining us this time around.

Although another foreigner, surprisingly there was one.



Former CSKA Moscow, Juventus & Fenerbahce man Milos Krasic was happy to sign for just £675 p/w. Still only at the age of 30 i feel he can do a decent job for us.



Another bonus, making it an all round fantastic signing for us.

Reis and Krasic are two fascinating signings. In real life Reis looked to be a real find for PSV, a mini-Ronaldo of sorts, drugs and injuries totally ruined him though. Krasic too was unbelievable for Juve in his first season but after that he's been a consistent shadow of himself.

Looking at their stats they should both be able to rip it up for you, especially Reis if he settles ok in Russia.

Great little insight on Reis that, haven't come across him before.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem he has settled at all. 3 goals in 11 appearances and has asked to leave the club due to us underachieving. Still only 5 points off a play-off spot but on a bad run at the minute due to my key Russians getting injured, 5 out in total.

It gets worse



Just a few points off the play offs with not too many games remaining and Reis joins my other striker on the sidelines for a few weeks. Really having a mini crisis at the moment!

I wonder how big an impact travel costs have on your budget. Vladivostok to Kaliningrad has to be the world's longest domestic away trip.

Edit: I just noticed you have Sakhalinsk from Sakhalin Island in your division, that'd be an even longer away trip.

Unfortunately it looks like my stay in Vladivostok has been cut short. Injuries really crippled us after the winter break, having to put youngsters in the team just to make up the 8 Russian rule. No real striker upfront meant no real goals.



Off to the job centre to see who will take me now, hopefully theres a chance in the future to revisit this part of Russia.

I'd imagine the travel costs were eating quite a bit from my finances, as you can see earlier on it was quite healthy with a good projected balance but in my last few days we were 800k in the red.

Would be interesting to see how it went in European competition.

Season 2 - 18/6/15

It seemed a good time to be unemployed with a lot of managers leaving their post within the month after my sacking.



A few minnows in France and Portugal were happy to offer me an interview but i noticed the post at Andriy Voronin's boyhood and first football club Chornomorets Odesa had just become vacant, of course i had to apply.





I seemed to talk my way around questions fired at me about why I'm out of a job not so long after getting into one. Why i supposedly lost the dressing room in Russia and if i would be the right fit for their long term ambitions.



I must of said something right. Voronin was coming back home, maybe that was the appeal for the chairman. Odesa is a much bigger club than Luch so i'd say this is my last chance to succeed if I'm going to make it as manager.


Welcome to Odesa

Unlucky with the sacking, but a good move that mate!

My rough understanding of Odesa led me to believe they were a Ukrainian minnow and i was expected poor finances and facilities along with a squad lacking any real quality.

I couldn't of been more wrong, from day 1 this team has got me really excited. The stadium is a modern complex built just in 2008 for the 2010 EURO's and is home to 31,000 fans. The team looks like it's ready to handle itself in this division but will definitely need work if we are going to challenge for anything.




The finances aren't the worst but could be much better, i've been given 2.2M by the chairman to give this club a better run than last season which left them hanging on to their Premier division status by just 2 points.


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My home town club is located in the south of Ukraine in the port city of Odesa, the port being the Black Sea.



It's going to be a tough challenge to topple the Ukrainian giants of Shakhtar and Kiev but it looks like this club could be a good fit for now.


Voronin's wife looked very happy to be back home

Season 2 - 8/7/15



As i got the job here at Odesa halfway into their pre-season i haven't had much time to make an impact, i've decided on what team & tactics i want to play but have spent most of my time looking to bring in better players.

Here's the problem, no-one wants to join. I've scoured eastern europe and asia looking for some players to make an impact who would want to join and not set me back a large fee but no-one wants to join at the minute. Im not sure whether it's the position the club just finished in last season or whether they are unsure of me as a manager but it's proving difficult to find anyone decent that will agree terms.

On day 1 i decided i needed a winger, a centre back and 2 midfielders. I have ended up with a duo from Sheriff in Moldova who have come along for around the 150k mark each.

Aitor Monroy


Andrei Muresan


I'm happy with both signings here and luckily Muresan can play CB, DM & CM so i think he'll be pushed around the park this season.

So the players not wanting to join was my first problem before the season started, now here's my second.



That is my final team I'm wanting to go with this season and within the past week my captain (Opanasenko) and three other key players have picked up injuries. Not the best timing with us having a visit from Dynamo Kiev tomorrow..


Another injury crisis

Season 2 - 10/7/15

Odesa vs Dynamo Kiev



Although our die hard fans turned out for my first appearance as Chornomorets boss ,it looks like most fans weren't convinced by my appointment as much as the board was.



I hope this game game them some optimism. Against a top 2 side we handled ourselves well considering the injuries sustained, If we had a fully fit squad I'm convinced we could of taken t least a point from this.

As soon as the game was over i knew i had to make some signings so we could make a real go in our next game away to Metalurg, definitely a winnable match.

Voronin looks to South America for reinforcements

I had the same problems. Either fees to high or players who simply just don't want to come to Odesa, i had to looks elsewhere for players with some quality and where better than South America. Most wanting to take any chance they can get to make the jump into european football, hoping one day they get that dream move to a european giant.

Jhon Valoy


Juan Valencia


For very small fee's these 2 could do a real job in the team and will be instant starters. Valencia's versatility looks to be a real asset with him being natural at LB, LM & AML positions.

Dani Pacheco


This signings I'm really excited about and i was surprised to see him being offered out for 120k by his agent. The bid was accepted straight away and Dani was happy to join us at Odesa, again another versatile player who can make an impact from either wing up upfront.

Mykola Ischenko


The last spot which needed filling was our CB position and i was glad to see Ischenko was surplus at Shakhtar coming in for a tiny fee of 185k. A veteran at 32 years old and looks to be a real force at the back.



Overall I'm really happy with our transfer dealings and considering we have only spent just shy of £1M, a lot of quality has been brought in.

One issue i was worried about when looking at foreigners was the foreigner rule Ukraine has, just like Russia. They seem to be more flexible here as the rule states the first 11 must have no more than 7 foreigners at one time which is much more better than the 3 we had to contend with in Russia.

Season 2 - 1/12/15

After our opening day defeat to Kiev, I brought in my new signings and we ended up going on a fantastic little run.

We seemed to run out as gas nearer to the break with us having some tough matches so hopefully we can kick on in February when the season resumes.



I was also surprised to see that after just 2 rounds in the Ukrainian cup we are in the quarter finals and once again the draw has been kind to us pitting us again the only second division side left in the cup, Stal.



Our results levee us in 7th place and just 4 points off a Europa League spot. It definitely looks an achievable goal for us.