Viktor Leonenko on Yarmolenko at Dynamo: "We'll see who gets strengthened"

Former Dynamo Kyiv striker Viktor Leonenko has commented on Andriy Yarmolenko's return to the Ukrainian capital.

- Why does the current Dynamo need Yarmolenko? A PR move after a failing season or a real fighting force?

- Any victory in the European competitions will immediately erase the memory of the fourth place. If they play badly, they will remember everything at once, especially in a championship like this. The main task of Yarmolenko's coming to Dynamo is to pass his experience to the young ones. That is his task, not the one he will drag the team. Maybe he will make a couple of games. We'll see who will be strengthened by whom.

- Why would Yarmolenko return to Dynamo, which has not guaranteed itself a European Cup in autumn?

- It should be welcomed only if he will help Dynamo, rather than be present. In this case no one will forgive anything. Everyone will start to write at once: leave, finish.

I adhere to the position that he needs to finish with the national team. It also requires some brains. That someone young should be in his place. Focus on the club, as many do. The main thing is to have enough health.

- Yarmolenko, after a comfortable and measured life in Europe and the Emirates, returns to Ukraine engaged in a full-scale war with rf. How much can a total change of scenery prevent Andriy from playing football?

- He is the one who makes the decision. I think it should not affect the game. If it does, stay in Europe. The rest somehow live and play. So that`s all. What can you do?

Of course, it will be unpleasant to travel, especially when the European Cups will begin for Dynamo. True, I have a feeling that it won`t be for long. There is no need to whine. You should go and help, and then they will count on you. There's nothing to be afraid of. The family issue can be solved if you want to.

- Is Yarmolenko able to win matches for Dynamo, as it was six years ago?

- Yarmolenko is capable of playing in this championship for another couple of years. The question is how much will Lucescu like it? Andriy is a technicolour, he can perform on the spot. Half of the teams will play against Dynamo in their own penalty area. There will be no need to run around. It will not fly in European competitions.

- Will Lucescu make up Yarmolenko's place on the pitch?

- He cannot play as a striker, because he does not know what it is. There you need to cling to it, make quick decisions. You need to drag, mock defenders. This is the other level I am talking about. On the flank, he will feel most comfortable. There is time there, under himself. That's what he likes. Lucescu will put him on the right, with Yarmolenko shifting to the centre, making space for the run-in defender.

- Does Yarmolenko's return close the way for Voloshyn, Benito and Diallo to the Dynamo starting line-up?

- Firstly, we need to pass the training camp. As I have been told, they will be more serious than under Lobanovskiy. Lucescu has been constantly complaining that there is no-one to play, so Yarmolenko can shut anyone out of the starting line-up. Another question is how it will all work out. Maybe Lucescu will put him on for one half, and he will be fine with that.

- Is it appropriate to use Yarmolenko in any other way than as a right winger?

- Probably not, because it's better to use him where he has always been. Not just to be present on the pitch and give the occasional goal pass, but to be useful to the team.

- Dynamo offered Yarmolenko the position of sports director after his career. Do you consider it populism, or will he have real powers at the club?

- Apparently, Buryak will be gone in a couple of years (smiling). True, Andriy has not been "enlightened" yet, that Ihor Mykhailovych buys players for Dynamo. Yarmolenko will not decide anything there. He will just be listed. Before Lucescu, they appointed honeymooners at Dynamo, no one could afford to take a player who was not to Surkis' liking. A lot can change in two years.

- Who was the initiator of this transfer - Surkis or Lucescu?

- It will not make any difference if he can play. Maybe he asked for it himself?

- What for you personally will be the marker of Yarmolenko's unsuccessful return?

- Why are there any felt-tip pens or crayons? It would mean that he made the wrong decision. You work hard, you play hard. Then the moment comes and you quit. And we have people who are agonizing over what Seleznyov got caught up in.

- Yarmolenko's career abroad lasted six years: Germany, England, the UAE. What prevented him, according to you, from being more successful?

- You just do not leave Dynamo. Yarmola left because he started paying dearly, and Igor Mihailovych thought that [why] pay such money in such a championship. Andriy did not work out there.

It is clear that one coach liked him, and the other one did not see him at all, there were a lot of injuries. You can just come up now and say straight away: Andriy, once you left and West Ham won the Conference League (smiles). You can rub it in that way, and that's not the way he did at all. In the UAE we have no idea what level it is at all. As Vatsko likes to say: but [he has] made good money.

Oleksandr Karpenko