Former Spartak Moscow coach Murat Yakin told journalists he was not to blame for the team’s poor performance last season.

      In an interview with Blick, he said he did not consider his Russian experience as a failure. He is now willing to take a pause to draw lessons from it.

      Born in Switzerland into a Turkish family, he grew up to become a professional football player. He was considered to be one of the best on the FC Basel’s lineup for many years and helped the club during international matchups though his stint in foreign teams was not very much successful.

      In 2006, he went on to become a coach and his first side was Concordia Basel. He also trained Thun, Luzern and his native Basel, bring them to the top of the Swiss league during two consecutive years. Under his management, Basel twice upset Chelsea in the Champions league 2013 group stages.

      In mid-June 2014, he was picked as the head coach for Spartak Moscow. According to Russian media, Yakin is expected to rake in 1.6 million euros a season.

      Coming sixth in the previous season of the Russian Premier League, Spartak Moscow has ambitious goals to get back into the top three and the European club tournaments, dreams buoyed up by the signing of Roman Shirokov from Zenit and a newly built stadium, Otkritie Arena.

      Yakin replaced long-standing coach Valery Karpin who as fired after two losses in matches against Terek Grozny in the Premier League and Tosno Leningrad Region, a club from the second division, in the Russian Cup.

      The team’s owner, Leonid Fedun, complained the title was floating away despite the fact that Karpin had all he had wanted.

      In the latest of his interviews, the 39-year-old manager praised Moscow restaurants and lamented the notorious traffic jams, saying he wouldn’t be able to move around without his chauffer.

      According to him, Russians are lavish and friendly and he’s been satisfied with the commitment of players.