The new head coach of Veres Rivne, Serhii Lavrynenko, has summed up his first three months at the club.
- I understood where I was going. Before me, Yuriy Mykolayovych Wirth worked here for four years, and he had a long history with Veres. It was expected that I would be compared to my previous coach. I believe that Wirth did his job very well, but every coach sooner or later faces a burnout. I think it happened to him.
When I came to this club, I saw that it was striving for development. First of all, it concerns the infrastructure. "Veres has a very good stadium with one of the best pitches. Unfortunately, it is not yet fully completed. The situation in the country is slowing down this process.
The club has also started building a training base. There are two decent-sized training fields: one with a natural surface and the other with an artificial one. An academy is being set up. The managers' eyes are burning and they want to develop.
Yes, the first team still has a small budget. Everything is done gradually. As the infrastructure is completed, I think the budget of the first team will grow.
- I would like to talk a little bit about your arrival at Veres. How and when did the club contact you?
- It happened almost by accident. I was giving lectures for future coaches at the Licensing Centre and I got a call from Veres. We met with the club's president Ivan Nadein in Kyiv and just talked about future plans. It happened on the day of Veres' first head-to-head match against Metalurh Zaporizhzhia. At the time, the media actively wrote that Wirth would leave the club at the end of the season and that Ostap Markevych would take his place.
"After the second match between Veres and Metalurh, I received a call from the club with a specific offer to become the head coach. I received this call just an hour after the end of that game. I had to arrive in Rivne in the morning.
- What attracted you to Veres?
- An important factor for me was the opportunity to work in the UPL. There are prospects for development here, despite the small financial strength. Perhaps, in a couple of years, Veres will also be able to make a big name for itself. We just need to build the whole system first.
- They say that for this season the management has set you the task of bringing Veres to the top 10 of the UPL. Is it true?
- The president voiced this goal. This will be a very good result for us. However, we understand that at this stage, our main task is to finish no lower than 12th in order to avoid head-to-head matches. My contract does not include the task of reaching the top 10 this season.
Dmytro Venkov