Vyacheslav Grozny: Dynamo reminds me of Barcelona

Famous Ukrainian coach Vyacheslav Grozny appreciated the transfer and selection work of Ukrainian clubs that take part in this season's European Cups.

— Vyacheslav Viktorovich, how would you rate the start of the new season for Ukrainian football?

- The 2021/22 season was unfinished due to the war, due to the attack of the Kremlin fascists on our country. And for eight months there has been a war against our country. Then in the spring it was decided to consider the points scored after 18 rounds as final. And Shakhtar became the champion, and Dynamo took second place. The top five also included the bronze medalists of Dnipro-1, Zorya and Vorskla. As a result, Shakhtar entered the Champions League directly, while Dynamo played the qualification. The Kievans brilliantly went through Fenerbahce and Sturm, by the way, having beaten the Austrians twice. I think Dynamo played great, given the situation. But Dynamo failed to beat Benfica, which is today the giant of European football. For those who criticize the people of Kiev, I will say: then make a claim against PSG, which twice played 1:1 with the Lisbon giants. In both matches, the Parisians could not beat the Portuguese, while Benfica was closer to victory. Therefore, let's thank Dynamo for beating Fenerbahce and Sturm.

— What can you say about the start of the new season of the Ukrainian Championship?

- I was against the Ukrainian championship being played in Ukraine. I proposed the first autumn round before winter, having agreed with UEFA, to play in Poland. Firstly, it is safe, secondly, there are a lot of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and thirdly, it is easier for the families of football players to come there and even rent housing there. Fourthly, Ukraine and Poland jointly hosted the Euro, and therefore the Polish clubs have an excellent infrastructure. Poland are brothers who treat us fantastically. And there is a warm welcome throughout.

- And in terms of financing, who would help?

- The money would be taken from the UEFA reserve fund. There is a fund that solves such issues during force majeure circumstances. They would transfer money to the Polish Football Federation to resolve all issues. I offered to play in Poland until the end of 2022 and not put anyone at risk. I still stand by my opinion. I believe that human lives are more important than football and tournament points. And in these force majeure circumstances, a thousand percent that UEFA would have met Ukraine halfway, and we would have played the first round matches in Poland. This was my public offer. Everyone had their own proposal. Naturally, safety came first. It was decided to hold the championship of Ukraine taking into account air alerts. As a result, the teams that left their cities began to hold home matches at the stadiums of the Kyiv region and in the arenas of the Western region of the country.

— What did you pay attention to in the off-season in terms of personnel changes among the UPL leaders?

— Total Ukrainization of UPL teams has taken place. Of course, for security reasons, the legionnaires took the opportunity to go abroad. Therefore, all clubs focused on Ukrainian football players. We will analyze five teams that qualified for European Cups at the end of last season. So, in four out of five teams, there was a change of head coaches in the offseason. Only in Dynamo did the experienced Mircea Lucescu remain the head coach. And in the rest of the teams there was a change of coaches for various reasons. Italian Roberto De Zerbi took over Brighton's Premier League team as former Seagulls coach Graham Potter took over Chelsea. Igor Jovicevich got the opportunity to play with Shakhtar in the group stage of the Champions League. Horvath moved from Dnipro-1 to the Donetsk team. Yuri Maksimov and Viktor Skrypnyk have expired contracts with their clubs, although all the coaches worked very well with their teams. It is clear that I, as a coach, want all my colleagues to work stably. I don’t like coaching leapfrog, so I will limit myself to facts.

- Regarding the fact that many legionnaires left the UPL, what do you think?

- During this difficult period, most of the legionnaires decided to continue working in other championships. UEFA allowed them to do this by their decision. But, in my opinion, when making such a decision, it would be necessary to introduce one more important point. If a player or coach leaves during the current contract, then the agreement is automatically extended for the period of his loan with all the ensuing circumstances. This is logical, since football clubs bought players, created appropriate conditions for them and their families, paid considerable salaries and bonuses. And they can leave the clubs with little or no compensation. I think that it is not too late for the Football Association of Ukraine to join forces and make certain adjustments in order to keep the leading players by the clubs.

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- Was Shakhtar the most active in terms of strengthening with top performers in the transfer window?

- Undoubtedly, the biggest rotation took place at Shakhtar. And this is natural, since for almost two decades now the Pitmen's main strategy has been the priority of inviting foreign coaches. Italian Nevio Scala, German Bernd Schuster, Romanian specialist Mircea Lucescu, Portuguese Paulo Fonseca and Luis Castro, and Italian Roberto De Zerbi. Now it continues with the Croatian vector. The sports director of the club is Darijo Srna, and the head coach is Igor Jovićević. Each club has the right to do as it sees fit. I am only stating facts.

— If you compare Igor Jovicevich with other foreign coaches of Shakhtar, what do you pay attention to?

- Since January 2002, with the arrival of an experienced specialist Nevio Scala, Shakhtar for the first time managed to win the "gold" of the Ukrainian championship and the Cup of Ukraine. And then came the German Bernd Schuster, who failed to repeat the success of the Italian. As a result, they began to look for a new foreign coach for the long term. And an experienced Romanian specialist Mircea Lucescu was invited, who over the course of 12 years won eight Ukrainian championships, five silver medals, six Ukrainian Cups, seven Ukrainian Super Cups and in 2009 the UEFA Cup.

The Portuguese Fonseca won three Ukrainian championships, three Cups, two Super Cups in three years and left for Italy, where he headed Roma. Then the Portuguese-speaking vector continued. Luis Castro worked for almost two years, during which he achieved one championship and one victory in the Super Cup match. Then the Portuguese-speaking vector changed when the Italian Roberto De Zerbi arrived, who won the Ukrainian Super Cup. He left because of the war and headed Brighton. On July 14, 2022, Croatian Igor Jovićević took over Shakhtar Donetsk. He had already worked in Ukraine before, heading Karpaty and Dnepr-1. If before that all foreign coaches had almost unlimited carte blanche in terms of staffing, including talented Brazilians to achieve maximum results in all tournaments, then in today's realities of the war against our country, most legionnaires left the club for security reasons.

— Let's analyze the transfers of Shakhtar players to other clubs, shall we?

- Let's try. Solomon moved to Fulham, Ismaily moved to Lille to Fonseca, and Tete to the famous Lyon. Dodo joined Fiorentina, Marlon moved to Monza, and Marcos Antonio to Lazio. Real Madrid have signed Brazilian talent Vinicius Tobias on loan. A very constructive creative techie, David Neres is already one of the leaders of Benfica, and Fernando moved to Salzburg. Zhenya Konoplyanka became a player of Cracovia, Bohdan Vyunnik became a player of Zurich, and seven more Brazilians returned to their homeland to various clubs. Alan Patrick and Vitao moved to Internacional, Junior Moraes and Maicon to Corinthians. Marlos joined Atlético Paranaense, Pedrinho joined Atlético Mineiro and Cipriano Marquinhos joined Cruzeiro. Also, a number of Ukrainian footballers wanted to have more playing practice. Bolbat moved to Kolos, from which Totovitsky moved to Shakhtar. Nazarina also moved to Shakhtar from Zorya, which was joined by Kiryukhantsev, who previously played for the Pitmen.

— Still, the Pitmen managed to get off to a decent start in the new season. So, did you manage to keep those who can bring results?

- Yes indeed. Even with such a large departure of players, the Pitmen retained three goalkeepers Pyatov, Trubin and Shevchenko, a defensive midfielder Stepanenko, defenders Matvienko, Kryvtsov, Bondar, Kornienko and Konoplya, as well as Bondarenko, Sudakov and Mudryk. Also returned from "Hanza" Sikan. Although earlier, due to the presence of very high-level legionnaires, the young guys had little game practice at Shakhtar. You can cite Zinchenko and Malinovsky as an example. And that's okay. It happens to a lot of big clubs. For example, at Chelsea, De Bruyne and Salah, who moved to other clubs, did not gain a foothold at the time.

- If you look at the current Shakhtar as a whole, what positive aspects can you highlight in the Donetsk team?

- Already now Mudryk, Bondarenko, Sudakov, Sikan, Ocheretko, Kryskiv, Nazarina, Petryak, Zubkov, Mikhailichenko, Bondar, Hemp, Kornienko have received the opportunity to express themselves. Now their progress depends only on them. It remains only with their talent to put in a lot of work. Almost all of them are players of the national or youth team of Ukraine. Shakhtar's personnel potential is very high. These are football players of a very high level who are able to solve very serious problems. You need to see which vector was chosen when completing the team. And everything is quite logical. Quickness in all its manifestations, experience of playing at a high level or progressive talent, attraction to the national team, ambitions, character. All these points were taken into account. The goalkeeper position was completely closed. Therefore, work was carried out on the positions of field players.

I am sure that the search for another high-level central defender has been intensively conducted and is currently being conducted. Three central defenders Kryvtsov, Matvienko and Bondar are not enough considering the game in all tournaments. Yes, there are talented youth Kozik and Farina, but they need time. With the departure of Bolbat to Kolos, and Ismaily to Lille, Brazilian right-back Lucas Taylor, who played for Dnipro-1, was invited on loan from PAOK. They, together with Hemp, will close this flank. I also note the arrival of Bogdan Mikhailichenko from Anderlecht on loan, who, together with Kornienko, will be active on the left. That is, in fact, the flanks are closed.

- You said that Jovicevich invited Taylor, with whom he worked in Dnepr-1. But Djurasek also joined the ranks of the Pitmen, whose transition also speaks of the choice of the Croatian vector by the Donetsk team. Croatian Djurasek and Ukrainian midfielders create what kind of force in the center of the field?

— Indeed, Croatian Djurasek, who is well known to Srna and Jovićević, as well as Nazarina, who was the leader and captain in Zorya, were added to the support zone to Stepanenko. Georgy Sudakov and Artem Bondarenko are also in the central control triangle. In the middle line there is an all-rounder Dima Kryskiv and Andrey Totovitsky. That is, this is a large group of talented players.

— What can you say about Shakhtar's attacking line?

- And in the attack group, on the flanks, in the center, we also see very strong players. In addition to Mudrik, there are Lassina Traore, Zubkov, Shved, Petryak, Sikan, Ocheretko, Topalov and Kulakov. This Shakhtar has the prospect of growth and is highly focused on results. Championship and Champions League matches confirmed this. I remember that Jovichevich really wanted the former Pikhalenok from Dnipro-1, but everything turned out to be not so simple. I won’t be surprised if the Pitmen eventually try to bring back Daniil Ignatenko from Bordeaux, who confidently played for the Ukrainian national team in the League of Nations. It is necessary to pay tribute to the Pitmen, who successfully play in all tournaments and at the same time build a game model, taking into account cardinal personnel changes in the system of dispatching structure and in the attacking group. Players grow and progress. It just takes time and patience.

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- How would you rate Dynamo's transfer policy this off-season?

— Dynamo made a bet on Ukrainian football players and their pupils, realizing that at the same time it would be much more difficult to solve serious tournament problems at first. It takes time for the adaptation of talented youth. As for the legionnaires who played for the Kyivans, Verbic first moved to Legia, and then signed a contract with Panathinaikos. Yes, and Kendzera was in Lekh from March to June, from where Dynamo bought him. Total football Ukrainization with the return of players from loans and full confidence in their young talents made it possible for the people of Kiev not only to achieve results, but also, together with the accelerated growth and progress of football players, to successfully play in the Ukrainian national team.

For example, at last year's Euro, a dozen and a half Dynamo Kyiv players (I'm talking about those who used to play for Dynamo) adequately represented Ukraine in this tournament. They continue to do so.

— What do you think about the results of Dynamo in the European Cup arena?

- Last year, Dynamo won all the trophies and were going to continue their victorious pace. But on February 24, everything changed dramatically. Of course, no one thought about football inside the country at all. It was very difficult for all the teams to prepare. Now Dynamo play in a very strong Europa League group. This is a good school for young players. Difficult to play, many people criticize Dynamo. What to criticize? Dynamo players reached the peak of their form earlier than others, because they started earlier. We, coaches and specialists, understand what is happening. If other teams had the opportunity to recruit the maximum number of players for various reasons, then Dynamo concentrated on keeping all their guys and giving these young people the opportunity to progress further. They made a bet on the youth a long time ago and they do not refuse it. Of course, the result is not always the one that many expect. But it's easier to criticize! But when the Ukrainian national team gathers, we see that Dynamo players are invited, and they play at a decent level.

- What can you say about the upheavals in the Kyiv team?

- Of course, a group of legionnaires left for other teams in order to have game practice and be safe. This is their right. We have already talked about Verbich. Gerson Rodriguez is currently playing in Saudi Arabia for the Al Wahda team, Carlos De Pena in the Brazilian Internacional. Sidclay and Vitinho are also in Brazil, namely in Cuiaba and Atlético Paranaense. Eric Ramirez is in Slovan Bratislava, Fran Sol is in Spanish Malaga, and Ibrahim Kargbo is in Doxa of Cyprus. Giorgi Tsitaishvili in Lech Poznan, although I think he could play for Dynamo as well. And Christian Bilovar moved to AEL Limassol. A large group of football players left Dynamo. And as a result, the people of Kiev again connected the young guys. Dynamo also bought Kabaev from Zorya in order to close Verbich's position. And Antyukh and Rusin moved to the Luhansk team from Dynamo. Mikhailenko, Brazhko, Bulets will also play for Zorya on loan. Dyachuk and Voloshin moved to Oleksandria. And from the lease, the people of Kiev returned Dubinchak, with whom I worked at Arsenal. The Kyivans have connected the young midfielder Samba Diallo to the first team. The same young Vanat quite often goes out to play the Dynamo striker. The same Yatsyk is connected to the first team. A very large group of young football players is connected to the first team of Kiev. Dynamo also invited several foreigners. This is the striker of the Jamaican national team Kahim Parris, who previously played for the Slovenian "Koper". And also from the Danish "Viborg" came the tall Dutch midfielder Justin Lonwijk. But in any case, Dynamo's selection vector is its pupils.

- Everyone hoped that Dynamo would be able to get into the group stage of the Champions League. What did Dynamo lack to achieve the goal?

- I think that the people of Kiev jumped above their heads anyway, beating Fenerbahce and Sturm. Having defeated the Turkish grandee, the Dynamo team already set a high bar. Only they can demand more from themselves. Because they all play in a big club with a big history. Mircea Lucescu, the management of the club and the players are always very demanding of themselves. Do not believe that someone somewhere is not improving something. In my opinion, they do too much rough work. Therefore, it is very difficult for the guys.

A lot of people are starting to laugh now. But today's Dynamo reminds me of Barcelona. They play fantastic in the first half. In the first halves, the Catalans completely outplayed Bayern in Munich, completely outplayed Inter in Milan and at home. But in all three matches, they also completely lost the second halves. Why? They are young, and the effort is still hard to dose. They throw out a lot of energy in the first half, and therefore there is much less energy left for the second half of the meeting. Dynamo reminds me of the same thing. I am sure that Mircea Lucescu tells the guys about this. In my opinion, today Dynamo are doing the maximum of what can be expected from them now.

- What are the main reasons why Dynamo is experiencing a crisis?

- Don't forget that the main goalkeepers are injured. Shaparenko was also out of action for a long time. For some reason, we do not talk about it, but only demand it. It is not easy to replace leaders. The central defenders have tension. Yes, Sirota and Popov make mistakes. And who does not allow them? Yes, every player makes mistakes. Barcelona and PSG players make mistakes too. In this situation, you just need to support the Dynamo team. Because quite young guys play for Dynamo, very young. Yes, there are different requirements for experienced players, a different approach, a different demand. Experienced from half a moment should squeeze.

Fenerbahce and Rennes are serious teams. Therefore, today Dynamo are doing their best, based on the opportunities that they have today. Naturally, after a set of forms, there is a functional decline. And, most likely, the guys were in this functional decline for a certain time, and we demand from them. When Dynamo beat Fenerbahce and passed them, there was no euphoria. Everyone thought that was the way it should be. So support the people of Kiev now, when they are coming out of this state of recession. Do you think they don't want to win? They want. And I respect all Ukrainian teams. Dynamo players were the first to reach their peak form and, of course, after a certain time there may be a decline in condition and play. Therefore, you need to be patient. Yes, Dynamo don't have a forward-realizer like Dovbik in Dnipro-1. Any team is difficult without a top striker. Every team needs a striker! Like Barcelona have Lewandowski, Tottenham have Kane and Man City have Haaland.

- Can Artem Besedin become such a striker?

- There is no need to demand more from Besedin than he can. He can get hooked, he can win a duel with his head, he can earn a free kick or a penalty kick. He will play well in advance, he can catch the ball, he can pass, he can keep the ball, he can miss it. But, listen, he is not a forward implementer yet. He is not Shevchenko and not Rebrov. He is a different type of striker. And Dynamo need a forward who scores.

- Do you think the club management and Mircea Lucescu are dealing with this issue?

- Does the leadership of Kiev know that such a striker is needed? Of course he does! Mircea Lucescu also knows this. He is a wise man. But it's not so easy to take someone during the war. Let's be patient and make the most of what we have.

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- What can you say about Dnipro-1, which is currently the leader in the UPL?

- In connection with the transfer of Igor Jovichevich to Shakhtar Donetsk, the management of Dnipro-1, let's say, made a bet on Yevgeny Krasnikov, who came in conjunction with 39-year-old head coach Oleksandr Kucher, with whom they worked together at Metalist resurrecting it.

At the same time, several tasks had to be solved. First, to keep the team leaders Dovbik, Pikhalenok, Nazarenko and so on. Secondly, to carry out promptly high-quality selection in order to strengthen the team, taking into account participation in European competitions. Thirdly, to put on a high-quality, modern, team game, taking into account your coaching vision and the availability of performers. Of course, there was a lot of time pressure, since the European Cup qualification matches started already in August. Unfortunately, in both matches of the Europa League qualification, the Dnipro team lost to AEK Larnaca (1:2 and 0:3). But it's natural. A new team, the players had just gathered, they needed time to get used to each other. Dnipro faced an extremely busy schedule, with matches going on in two days for the third and in three days for the fourth. Also, the team was waiting for a lot of moving. Dnipro started playing home games of European cups in Slovakia, and UPL home matches in Uzhgorod. In such a situation, first of all, it is required not to conduct a systematic training process, but at least to have time to carry out a comprehensive recovery of football players, as well as to analyze matches.

The team is on the road all the time - moving, flying, and matches go two to three. As a coach, I know how difficult it all is. For any coach, this is a huge invaluable experience. You won't get it from books and manuals. Here, the psychological ability to build the microclimate of the team comes to the fore. It is important for the coach to communicate with the team leaders, the adaptation of newcomers and youth, personal communication with each player, confidence in his own vision of staging the game, the ability to take a hit, take responsibility, protecting the players. Only in such a stressful situation do the strong qualities of the heads of the coaching staff and football players manifest themselves. In addition, you need to learn how to withstand the stress associated with the war and with all football moments. Working in big clubs from big football cities constantly forces you to be ready to take on heights "that you have not submitted to before." But at the same time, this is a great incentive and opportunity for everyone.

— Although Jovićević moved to Shakhtar, Dnipro managed to retain many leading players. What can you say about the selection of "Dnepr-1" in general?

- Yes, Dnipro managed to keep almost all of their main players, with the exception of goalkeeper Sarnavsky, who left for Kryvbas and Romanian goalkeeper Valentin Cojocaru, who ended up in Belgian Oud-Heverle. Agents of the young Yegor Yarmolyuk recommended that he leave for Brentford, seeing a prospect in this. Well, God bless. Arseniy Batagov moved to Zorya, Neven Djurasek, together with Croatian coach Jovićević, moved to Shakhtar. Dubinchak returned to Dynamo. Ignatenko returned after a loan to Shakhtar and was immediately loaned to Bordeaux. Vantukh returned to Dynamo and from there went on loan to Zorya. Chuzhe returned to Dinamo Zagreb, from where he moved on loan to Zrinjski.

An experienced, very fast player from the Gromov attack group came as a free agent. Dnipro pupil Rubchinsky, who played on loan for Nikopol, was connected to the training of the first team. Naturally, Krasnikov and Kucher brought a group of players with them. Sarapiy came with them from Metalist, who can play a central defender and a defensive midfielder. Also, from the Kharkiv team, a very fast flank Tanchik moved to Dnipro-1, a kind of Gattuso defender Babenko, a young goalkeeper Rybak, a midfielder Gorbunov, as well as an ex-player of Lyon, Monaco and Lille Frenchman Baluli . All these six players came with Kucher and Krasnikov to Dnepr-1. Also, Yevhen Krasnikov, who knows how to find players, in the Dnipro team closed the goalkeeper position with the Brazilian Max Valef. The Argentinean Purita came from the Greek Volos, the Algerian Amash came from Boavista. Brazilian Wesley Braga came from Dubai, another Brazilian Busanello on loan from Chapecoense and Blanco from Independiente. That is, a large group of foreigners in this situation moved to Dnepr-1.

- Why do you think these legionnaires decided to move to Dnepr-1?

— First of all, European cups are interesting. They play home matches of European competitions in Slovakia - it's safe. UPL home matches are played in Uzhhorod, which is also quite safe. Therefore, foreigners, of course, have chosen such a vector. He approached them.

- "Dnepr-1" in a rather short period of time created an essentially new team. Do you consider their selection successful, looking at the results of the team?

- The goalkeeper position was closed, as we have already said. And in the center of defense, Svatok, Adamyuk, Sarapiy and Loginov can play. That is, the Dnipros have four central defenders. We know that today there is competition in most positions. Looking at the selection carried out, I can note that the quality of selection for many positions is already visible. And often you have to make personnel changes in positions. Sarapiy's ability to play as a central defender and defensive midfielder allowed the coaching staff to use him in tandem with Svatok, and move Adamyuk, who played in the center, to the right-back position and add reliability to the defense. This made it possible to play in Babenko's defensive zone. Rubchinsky, Kogut and others can also play there. This makes it possible for Pikhalenok to play the game of dispatch. If Babenko plays alone as a destroyer, then one of the foreigners is added to Pikhalenok. Then the Dnieper get a very strong central triangle. We see that Busanello has firmly taken the place of the left back. We understand that the three forwards Dovbik, Gutsulyak, Amash (and there are also Gromov, Nazarenko) are players of a very high level. Dnepr-1 is already helping to solve problems. Dnipro won all six opening matches of the UPL and are playing quite successfully in their group of the Conference League.

- Surely Dovbik and other team leaders will want to acquire other clubs. What do you think, will Dnepr-1 act in this situation?

- Most likely, Dnepr-1 may face the fact that in winter it will have to keep its leaders. Dovbika, Pikhalenka and a number of other guys will really want to buy other clubs. And it will be very important for the people of Dnipro to keep them. But the experienced manager Krasnikov, I think, knows how to act correctly in this situation.

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— What do you think about Zorya and Vorskla? How did they cope with the selection in the last transfer window?

- Both Zorya and Vorskla, in addition to the coaching rotation, have undergone major personnel changes among the performers also for various reasons. Both teams even managed to persuade some guys to return to the Ukrainian championship. Zorya returned Yevgeny Shakhov, who played in Lecce, PAOK and AEK. I worked with Yevgeny when I coached Arsenal. He is a smart, good, talented dispatcher. Therefore, I think it was a good decision to invite him. Oleg Danchenko, who has experience playing in good teams, moved to Zorya from AEK on loan. He is quite fast and technical. Of course, these guys will help Luhansk residents.

- "Vorskla" was also able to strengthen a number of well-known players. Did you also pay attention to this?

- Yes, of course! Vorskla went the same way as Zarya. Vladlen Yurchenko, who is well known to Viktor Skripnik, was taken by the Poltava team from Riga. The left lateral Vasily Kravets came from the Spanish "Leganes". Also, a very experienced football player Denis Oleinik, who played 12 matches for the Ukrainian national team, moved to Vorskla from the Finnish SIK. These players will help Vorsklyane.

- What can you say about foreign newcomers to the Vorskians?

— Yes, Vorskla managed to attract a number of foreign players. We know that they always have good Albanian and Balkan breeding vectors. And now they have invited Albanian forward Taulant Seferi and Albanian defender Ardit Toli from Tirana. Apparently, Vorskla, having been following this path for a long time, is following the talents in Albania. Previously, the Albanians have already played successfully for Vorskla. This vector has continued. Also, Ennur Totre, a player from North Macedonia, joined the Poltava team from Tirana. This speaks of the Balkan vector of Poltava residents. In addition, the Vorsk team took three Brazilians: defenders Gabriel Nazario and Felipe Rodriguez, as well as striker Marlison.

“Yuri Maksimov also left behind a good foundation. How do you see the development prospects of Vorskla?

- In my opinion, Yuri Maksimov worked very well at Vorskla. With him, many guys grew up and the backbone of the team remained. This is the goalkeeper of the Ukrainian national team Dima Riznyk. And also Chesnakov, Sklyar, Perduta, Stepanyuk. These are all very serious players. And if we add Yurchenko, Kravets and Oleinik along with the legionnaires to them, then the team looks quite promising. Of course it takes time. But if such players come, then there are appropriate conditions. We can only wish good luck to all our teams.

“Many leaders have left Zorya. Do Luhansk residents not have the same situation as Vorskla?

- Zorya is creating an almost new team. Nazarina, Kabaev, Gladky, Gromov, Khomchenovsky, Vernidub, Favorov, Kochergin, Tsvek, Shahab Zahedi and Sayyadmanesh left the Luhansk club. Most of these guys played in the main team. And a certain group of players came. These are Batagov, Mishnev, Kiryukhantsev, Turbaevsky, Antyukh, Rusin, Vantukh, Brazhko, Mikhailenko, Bulets. Many of these players came from Dynamo. Experienced Butko, Churko and Shakhov also joined the ranks of the Lugansk team. According to Zorya, I can say that emotionally they got off to a very good start. They started very well, starting with three victories. Then they lost twice and drew once. Also, the Luhansk team flew out of the Conference League. After a home win over Universitat (1:0), Zorya, unfortunately, lost 0:3 on the road. Just like Vorskla, which beat AIK at home (3:2), and, alas, lost 0:2 in Sweden.

— To summarize, what can you say about the current transfer policy of Ukrainian clubs?

— We have seen that in this period the Ukrainian vector is fundamental. And I think that in the near future it will be so. Young guys also have a chance to grow and progress. I am sure they will do it. It all depends on what tasks the clubs, players, and coaches set.

- And how do you see the prospects for the development of Ukrainian football?

— I am sure that with common efforts everything will work out. We always believe in the best. Ukraine is a football nation. Our players are growing. You can see how the same Mudrik, Sudakov, Bondarenko, Zubkov and other guys are progressing. This is a plus for the Ukrainian team. This means that we will successfully play both in European competitions and at the national team level.

I am an incorrigible optimist and always believe in what is connected with our country, including in terms of football.

Dmitry Kotkov