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Zenit St Petersburg and Chelsea are the two teams in the running to appoint Maurizio Sarri as their manager ahead of next season, but with Chelsea reportedly close to sealing a deal for Sarri, Zenit are also set to appoint another manager.

Zenith are now ready to announce Sergey Semak as their new Coach, as report claims Sarri has agreed terms with Chelsea.

According to Sportitalia, Zenit have accepted Sarri’s choice of favouring the Premier League over Russia and have moved on to their next choice.

They have reportedly chosen 42-year-old Ufa boss Semak, who had already worked at Zenit as an assistant manager under Luciano Spalletti, Andre Villas-Boas, Mircea Lucescu, Leonid Slutsky and Fabio Capello.

He was caretaker manager for two games in March 2014.