Communists Ask Putin To Fire Zenit Manager, Hire North Korean

When things go bad, hire a North Korean and tell Vladimir Putin to do it.

That is apparently the approach of local communists, who have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to fire Zenit St. Petersburg manager Luciano Spalletti and replace him with a North Korean. Not any North Korean in particular, just any North Korean.

"What Zenit need is a tough taskmaster from the DPRK where the sport is part of a daily struggle," the St. Petrsburg branch of the Communists of Russia wrote in an open letter to Putin.

Zenit paid more than $100 million for Hulk and Axel Witsel at the transfer deadline and have not fared well since. They took just one point from their two league matches and were embarrassed by Malaga 3-0 in the Champions League. A taskmaster would have never let that happen.

The problems go beyond the results, though. Established players at the club took offense at the club's spending on transfers and captain Igor Denisov was sent to the reserves after refusing to play until his contract was renegotiated. A task master would have never let that happen either.

Zenit is owned by Gazprom, which the government owns a large part of, although Zenit insists that they are spending club money and not government money.

That didn't stop the communists from asking the St. Petersburg native Putin to get involved. He declined, but the dream of the North Korean lives on. Any North Korean.