The president of Kharkiv's Metalist 1925, Volodymyr Nosov, told us how the appointment of the team's new head coach, Viktor Skrypnyk, took place.
- The winter break is over, and Metalist 1925, led by its new head coach, will play its first official match. Why was Skrypnyk chosen after the young Edmar-Holodyuk tandem?
- We understood that to achieve our goals, our team needed a coach who, firstly, understands the Ukrainian mentality and football realities. And secondly, he has undeniable consistency and practice in Europe.
In the case of Viktor Skrypnyk, we got much more - a specialist with really great results, because in a short time he led two teams - Zorya and Vorskla - to European Cup competitions.
- Let's recall how the negotiations with Viktor Skrypnyk and Vorskla went?
- The negotiation process was completed quite quickly. Viktor Skrypnyk was able to have the whole winter intermission to prepare the team for the next half of the season.
During the winter training camp, Metalist 1925 worked in Spain and used this time for intensive training and preparation of the team for the next part of the season.
- Talking to the club president is a unique opportunity to conduct a fact-check. Is it true that Vicente Gomez, Unai Melgosa and Roman Hryhorchuk were among the candidates for the head coaching position?
- For me, there was only one candidate. But Vicente Gomez and Unai Melgosa were indeed considered as possible alternative candidates. However, their experience is more in line with European football. In Melgosa's case, his experience with the Ukrainian youth team, although important, is more indicative of working with young people.
Our need was to develop the first team, where the average age of the players is 26. That is, the sword was definitely with Skrypnyk.
Therefore, I can say that we started a certain dialogue with several candidates, but we had serious and concrete negotiations only with Viktor Skrypnyk.
- Skrypnyk had a valid contract with Vorskla. What was the amount of his release clause and is it a record for coaching transfers in Ukrainian football?
- I won't tell you the amount of the release clause for Viktor Skrypnyk because of the confidentiality of the deal, but I can assure you that we didn't set any records.
Artur Valerko
