Thought he had recently said he wanted to come back to England to manage again?

Claudio Ranieri Close To Zenit Bench - Report

After his sacking at the back end of the season, the former Juventus coach could be about to embark on a Russian adventure...

When he was shown the door back in May, Claudio Ranieri must have wondered where his next move might be. Well, it now seems that the former Chelsea boss is contemplating a move to Russian side, Zenit St Petersburg.

According to Calciomercato.it, the Roman native enjoyed a fruitful meeting with Zenit officials recently in which a proposed contract worth €2.5m a season was put on the table.

As Ranieri weighs up what would clearly be a unique and very interesting new challenge, it could also prove to be positive news for Juventus, who are still set to pay their former coach the remainder of his contract.

Should Ranieri opt to take up the offer of sitting on the Zenit bench, the Bianconeri would save a large proportion of the contact repayment, which would undoubtedly give them an added boost on the transfer market.

Wow, good luck to Claudio if he goes. And I hope he goes. Zenit are a good team, and 2.5m a season sounds like a contract he wont find many places.

I guess this means Advocaat is moving on.

Does Roman financially back Zenit in some capacity?

Think thats CSKA Moscow