Mykola Nesenyuk: "Do we really need a coach for the national team?"

Well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk spoke about the lack of a coaching staff in the Ukrainian national team in a situation where there are still months before the start of the qualifying cycle for Euro-2024.

"One and a half months before the start of the selection for Euro-2024, the national team of Ukraine does not have a coach - the previous coach Oleksandr Petrakov has finished his contract, and the leaders of Ukrainian football have not yet managed to invite a new coach.

Judging by information from open sources, Serhii Rebrov should have become the coach, who is currently working somewhere in the Arabian desert for crazy money and does not want to lose this money. There are no Arab sheikhs among the sponsors of the Ukrainian national team yet, so everything has been suspended. In no way am I going to discuss the relationship between patriotism and material interest in the actions of Serhii Rebrov. He is a grown man, soon to be fifty. I wanted to think about something else - is it necessary in the current situation to spend a lot of money on an invitation to the coach's national team with a bunch of foreign "helpers"?

Don't laugh, but I'm already ready to name the starting line-up of our team for the match against England on March 26: Lunin, Mykolenko, Matvienko, Zabarny, Tymchyk, Stepanenko, Mudryk, Zinchenko, Malinovsky, Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk. When they are all healthy, and the main goalkeeper of Real Madrid does not recover, then this line-up will be like this. In case of that, one or two other football players whom everyone knows well will come out. All the players named are recognized masters whose skill is confirmed by the respective contracts with their clubs. No matter who is the coach of the national team, the players from the English championship will definitely be on the field. The coach is not a suicide!

So, what else can a coach, whoever he is, teach in the few days that said masters will be released by their clubs before national team matches? What secrets to tell? The answer is none! Each of the named footballers will play in the national team as they know how. And we know well what our football players are capable of. Whoever will lead Ukraine before the game with England, this match will look the same - pressure from the home team with wing passes and our attempts to counterattack in the hope of an opponent's mistake. The most we can hope for is a lucky draw. Don't believe it - ask the bookmakers! And no coach will be happy about it, even if they pay him a hundred million pounds and another hundred million sterling!

Similarly, no one will be happy with the teams of Malta and North Macedonia, which we will beat for any coach. To tell the truth, our national team has quite enough people who are able to conduct pre-match training so as not to injure football players. And who exactly will "trade face" on the coaching bench during the games does not matter at all.

You may ask - if national team coaches are not needed, then why are these coaches kept by the world's leading national teams? I answer - they need a coach in order to beat up greedy millionaires who, together with their agents, dictate what to do to the national teams of the leading football countries. Their national team does not need a coach - they need an authority that these millionaires would listen to and not send.

Was Andriy Shevchenko at the head of our national team a coach? Doubtful. But he was an authority! Was Oleksandr Petrakov, who replaced him, a coach? It was exactly! But he was not an authority!

The problem is that authority is very expensive these days. And spending a lot of money on them to try to overtake England and Italy in the selection group is hardly advisable. Of course, when this money is not "laundered" according to well-known schemes. With or without authority, Ukrainian footballers will definitely give all their strength in the matches against England and Italy and will do everything possible to qualify for Euro 2024. But will these forces be enough? Well, I want to wish the coach of our team, whoever he is, good luck. Everything else does not depend on him," Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.