A well-known football expert and former Dynamo Kyiv striker Viktor Leonenko commented on the appointment of now ex-Dnipro-1 head coach Igor Yovichevich as the head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk.
Viktor Leonenko“Lucescu has already earned so much money for Dynamo, and the fans continue to hate him”
— Viktor Evgenievich, how did you react to the transfer of Jovicevich to Shakhtar?
- A coach never changes from a good life. Whether or not Jovicevich succeeds, we'll see. It's not so much about him, but about the new championship - who will look like, who will recruit whom, who will leave whom.
- Dnipro-1 fans were offended by Jovicevich because he left the club so unexpectedly. Fair?
— Fans are always offended. Look at Luceska. He has already earned so much money for Dynamo, and the fans continue to hate him. Fine, if he were Ukrainian. For some reason, no one runs into Vashchuk? A man left for Spartak - worse than a traitor. Nobody - nothing, but everyone is chasing Lucescu.
It is also important to understand that the fans do not make the result. They ask the head coach and the president. Fans should be indignant and swear, especially when the team loses, not to mention when they play badly. In my time, people stopped going to matches, they brought up the players in this way.
- Will it be hard for Jovićević at Shakhtar?
- Any coach should be given time, even if he is great. In Dnepr-1, Jovicevich succeeded. No one knows how it will be at Shakhtar. The same goes for football players. Let's take Shevchenko. What he did in Milan, but moved to Chelsea, not to mention returning to Dynamo, where he had to score goals with his ass, and nothing happened.
Yarmolenko also played normally in Dynamo. And then it didn’t work out there, it didn’t work out there. And in the end, it is not clear where he was for five years and what he did. But he still sat, did not go anywhere, received money. And where is this “I love football, I want to play, I want to prove”? They were waiting for the patriot to return to Dynamo, and he - once, and already at Rebrov's in the UAE.
- Money.
- Then you should say that you went to earn money, and not f*** about patriotism. Let him go where he wants, I don't criticize him. You just have to not change your shoes. If not for the national team, I don't know what he would have done.
The same Lunin now. Seems like a good goalkeeper. He will tell the children that he was in Real Madrid. They tell me, they say, I still need to get to Real Madrid. You can also get to the international space station, and then what? Sitting on the bench at Real Madrid for four years is like being banned for doping for four years. And Yarmolenko, it turns out, was caught for five years.
We have a team of substitutes. Zinchenko, Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk, Kovalenko, Konoplyanka - they mostly sit on the bench in clubs. Thank you, Malinovsky and Mikolenko are playing. And then, Ruslan, it seems to me, in the selection does not fully fulfill what Gasperini requires of him.
Metalist is going to Kobin, not Kobin to Metalist. What can he find in Uzhgorod?
- As a person who has been associated with television for many years, I cannot but ask about your reaction to the closure of the Football TV channels. Surprised by this decision?
- Well no. Rinat Leonidovich decided so, and, it seems to me, he did the right thing. Already far from everything that is needed, the Football channels showed. When there is no picture, there is nothing to talk about. The audience, whatever one may say, was gathered by European cups. Why waste money on maintaining such a colossus?
I would have cut many of them there a long time ago. Another question is why the channels were closed right now. However, this is already politics, and on these issues - not to me. But in general they closed it, and they did it right. Even if we take the championship of Ukraine, what is there to watch now?
- Only Dynamo with Shakhtar?
- It is not clear who will play. Who will come and who will run away. Rykun correctly noted that foreign coaches come to us with pleasure, but for some reason the players do not (laughs).
Kobin appeared from somewhere. Sevidov joked correctly: Metalist is going to Kobin, not Kobin to Metalist. Why do they need a sports director now? What can he find there in Uzhgorod?
In our country, everyone who loses or gets fired gets promoted. Look at Babich. He didn't win anything anywhere - he headed Kryvbas. It's still good that he didn't end up in Zara.
Vernidub - well done. He is probably already in the Guinness Book of Records. He came and kicked 18 people out of Kryvbas. Can you imagine how much crap Babich kept there? It's not even amateurishness. And so it is in many clubs.
Artem VOITSEHOVSKY
