Andriy Tsurikov: "Not everyone understood Blokhin well. I mean requirements and, to a certain extent, behaviour"

Former Dynamo Kyiv midfielder Andriy Tsurikov, who now plays for Oleksandriya, recalled how he worked under Oleh Blokhin.

- You came to Dynamo in the Blokhin era. They say that sometimes, when gathering the team, Oleh Volodymyrovych could tell how he scored in 1975. Did the legionnaires who were born much later understand this?

- As far as I remember, not everyone understood him well. I mean the requirements and, to a certain extent, the behaviour. But still, you have to understand that he was a great footballer with great endless ambitions. He always wanted to win. Blokhin did a lot for Ukrainian football and sometimes did not understand how it was possible not to score at one point or another. He could say: "I would have scored!".

- There are many legends about Blokhin's difficult character. Is it true?

- I don't know, he's just a man with big ambitions. Probably, not everyone liked this, but I had no problems with Oleg Vladimirovich. We often talked to him face to face. Yes, he did not reward me with playing practice, but I had no problems with him in terms of communication. Perhaps he had some problems with the legionnaires, because they literally spoke different languages. The interpreter could not always correctly translate certain working nuances.

- Why is Dynamo outside the top three now, given all the opportunities and recruitment?

- It's hard for me to say why. In my opinion, it's because they have the same global players as other Ukrainian teams, and for the most part, Dynamo have been producing results either from foreigners or from Ukrainians who have now left to play abroad.

Danylo Vereitin