According to the media, Oleksandr Ishchenko is leaving the Dynamo Academy. I have always had the impression that Ishchenko is "eternal" in his position. It was hard to imagine anyone else in this position. It seems as if a whole era in the club's history is passing.
Alexander IshchenkoOleksiy Oleksandrovych's resignation from the position of head of the Dynamo school was not unexpected. Age and health are taking their toll, and there are only more problems. If there had been fewer problems with youth football because of the war, Mr Ishchenko could have worked a little longer in his position.
I believe that Oleksandr Oleksiyovych has done a lot for Dynamo. The position of the head of the Academy of one of the flagships of Ukrainian football involves very broad responsibilities - player selection, selection, coaches, the general methodology of the Academy's work, domestic issues, foreign tournaments.
If a young player proves himself somewhere, then Shakhtar immediately becomes another candidate in addition to Dynamo. Later, Rukh joined the Miners' school. "We need to convince the player and his parents to choose Dynamo's school. All children must be safe, under control, well-fed, well-dressed and free from personal problems. Some children do not adapt well to life in the capital, others have a hard time being separated from their parents.
The head of the Dynamo school must have great authority. He or she must be able to control all processes. He or she must be able to work with a very large amount of diverse information. He or she must be able to listen to different opinions and accept arguments. This is all very, very difficult.
The most painful blow for Ishchenko was when two coaches of the Dynamo Academy, Volodymyr Samborskyi and Oleksandr Sytnyk, joined Shakhtar. They were former pupils of Pavlo Yakovenko's academic group, where Artem Milevskyi and Oleksandr Aliyev were the main stars. Samborsky and Sytnyk could not find themselves in professional football, so they got jobs in the club's system and have been working since 2001. They not only joined Shakhtar, but also took four other players with them. Among them, the most famous is Bohdan Viunnyk, a forward for the Ukrainian youth national team. However, it should be clarified here that Bohdan moved to Kyiv from Metalist Academy and was not in the club's system for long.
Perhaps, of all the players who never joined Dynamo's system, Danylo Sikan is the one who can really be regretted. If the Zhytomyr-born player had chosen Dynamo over Shakhtar in 2019, it is very possible that his career would have been more successful today.
Ishchenko has been accused of not giving the Spanish Methodists full freedom of action. He made his own changes to the methodologies of Unai Melgosa, Vicente Gomez and then Alberto Bosch in order not to lose the Dynamo traditions. For me, this is a debatable question. Which of the players of 1995-1996, with whom the Spaniards worked, later found themselves in other clubs? In fact, only Roman Yaremchuk. Only Artem Besedin was able to play for Dynamo. Let me just remind you that the Spaniards got very interesting young people who won their debut championship among 19-year-olds. But no one except Yaremchuk has really played.
Which of the young players played for Serhii Rebrov during his time at foreign clubs? The Spanish assistants were there. I understand that the Middle East has its own specifics. But I don't know any such players in Ferencvaros for three seasons.
Perhaps the Spaniards did not help much to bring someone up. But they gave the effect of novelty, the direction of movement of the school as a whole. Their ideas and vision of football became an important part of the club school's work.
Subsequent invitations of foreign methodologists did not matter much. The fact is that such specialists are not cheap. Romeo Wandler (a Croatian who has long lived and worked in Germany), Guillermo Samso and Ramon Catala did not leave much of a mark after their stay in the Ukrainian capital. The then first-team coach Oleksandr Hatskevych wanted a German development of the Academy. Wandler was found for this idea, but his methods of work were not very effective. Romeo very quickly started working with attacking players. The Argentine model of football development is slightly different from the Ukrainian reality. Especially when it is not performed by the strongest specialists. I stay in touch with Samso. Every new season he changes his job.... In recent seasons, we have refused to employ foreign methodologists. It makes no sense.
You have to call a spade a spade. The large number of our own pupils in Dynamo's first team is not so much about the school's efficiency, but about the lack of opportunity to buy quality players. There is room for improvement. Everything is determined by comparison. So we will see how much more effective the new head of the Academy will be than his predecessor. The problem of transition from youth to professional football is very serious. Now, the very strong generation of 2006, which has already been assembled piecemeal, is already stalling...
Let me tell you a story that characterises Oleksandr Ishchenko. Before the presentation of the book "Pioneers" by Semen Sluchevsky, I had an interview with Oleksandr Oleksiyovych. He was on crutches, and it was difficult for him to count. Despite his health problems, he gave me almost two hours in one of the boxes at the Dynamo Stadium. For him, there were no secondary moments. Everything was important to him. Moreover, he communicated as sincerely as possible. I would like to thank him for his work and wish him good health.
Sergey Tishchenko
