Serhiy Baltacha, a legend of Dynamo Kyiv and vice-champion of Euro 88 with the USSR national team, told us what he thinks about Ukraine's performance at Euro 2024, why England will not win the European Championship, and recalled his transfer from Dynamo to Ipswich.
Sergiy Baltacha"The Ukrainian national team had no leaders who could lead the team"
- Sergiy Pavlovich, thank you for taking the time to talk to UV. What are you doing now?
- I left my job at the Charlton Academy. I have been coaching children in a private school for a year now. In this school, football is not as well developed as other sports. In England, it's very prestigious when children are involved in sports alongside their education - football, field hockey, rugby, cricket. These are all traditional sports in Britain. The school leaders want football to be on a par with cricket, rugby, and field hockey. I was invited to develop football here.
- Why did you leave Charlton? You've been with the club for about 20 years.
- It was time for a change, when you stay in one place for too long. In Charlton, there was no understanding with the director of the academy, who is very far from football. Before that, he had been an assistant for 12 years. His predecessors were football people, former players, coaches. We spoke the same language of football.
Now Charlton is in the third division, and 20 years ago they played in the Premier League. I really like working with children. No coach there, except me, has ever won the English U-18 championship.
I went through the entire FA program. They emphasize all aspects, but the technique is very lame. It was not a rule to practice everything to automaticity. The coach shouldn't talk much, and the players should do what the coach asks. They do not understand this.
- How do you work in an environment where football is inferior to other sports at school?
- Sasha, not everyone can take a new step at the age of 66. All year long I have been trying to reorganize myself to a new way of working. In the academy, kids cry when they don't play in the team, and in a private school they cry because they don't want to play on Sundays. They don't need this sport, but their parents and coaches force them to. There is a lot of competition between schools here, so schools that are lagging behind in terms of football development need to catch up with the rest to attract more children.
Everything is very different. The atmosphere is completely different after a year of work. To be honest, my expectations and reality did not coincide at all.
It's a big surprise for me that this is happening. If I realize that this is not for me, I will go back to work at another academy.
The problem is that I alone cannot be responsible for all the processes: the fields are not ready for winter, because when it rains from October to May, the fields are not ready and there is very little time to train. I realized this immediately when I came. The school management is ready to do this. You cannot train 5-6 thousand children who study here on your own. On their own initiative, the teachers who work here try to help, but their knowledge of football is very limited: how to conduct training, improve their skills.
The British are a very specific nation. They think they know absolutely everything. If I had been offered to go on such an adventure, I would hardly have agreed (Smiles). We'll see what happens.
- Do they listen to your advice at school?
- I explain to them how to train, prepare a training plan. I can't do it for them every day. Now it is their responsibility to plan the training process. I can always advise them if something is needed, but they don't live for football, they treat it as a job.
- How did you react to the early departure of the Ukrainian national team?
- Our team was let down by the first game. A 0-3 loss to Romania is a very painful lesson. We need to learn from it so that it doesn't happen again in the future.
I looked at the guys and couldn't understand who was the leader. No talking, no talking before the game and during the break. I did not see a person who could lead. It is not enough to rely on a few people to do everything. There are 11 people on the field, and they all have to keep a high standard. To have a team spirit, to fight for yourself and for the guy, which was the strength of the guys I played with.
- There were a lot of expectations from the guys, especially those who play outside of Ukraine. Have we become hostages to our expectations?
- In every game you need to give your best. The goals we conceded could have been avoided. There was no overperformance that we expected from the guys. It's very difficult when you go through such a journey and don't show your worth in the final part.
Now it's not so easy when 17 people from Dynamo changed into the shirts of the union team. During the national team window, you don't have much time to play when players play in different clubs.
"It was a surprise to me that England made it to the playoffs with such a game"
- England made it to the final for the second tournament in a row. Southgate's team was beaten up pretty badly throughout the tournament. Can this team claim the title?
- In England, the press was dissatisfied with the team's performance, but the most important thing is that the team understands the expectations. There was a lot of criticism. They rallied, gave their all in every game. Not everything worked out, but the team did not lose a single game. One of the experts said that the main thing in such tournaments is the result.
It was a surprise to me that they made it to the playoffs with such a game, but they slowly moved and reached the final, scoring in the last minutes, having high-quality players. There are leaders, when someone may not be able to do well, there is someone to take the game into their own hands. This is something we did not have. A very important component for success is leaders who do their job. The more of them you have in your team, the better.
- The English national team changed during the tournament: right in the middle of Euro 2024, Southgate switched to a three-defender game, and in the decisive stages, substitutions turned the game in England's favor. Was it a coincidence or a deep knowledge of the team's capabilities?
- Southgate made some great substitutions. This also shows how well he knows the capabilities of each player. The goal scored by Watkins was a defender's mistake. I have been in situations like that a thousand times where it is important not to let the opponent get between your legs.
It will be a very interesting game. I talked to my younger son and he said that England will win. I prefer Spain, which puts on a show every game. England is more like a working team, but they are very strong individually and as a team.
For the Spaniards, the final will be a test. They live for football. Even in my time, it was hard to play against the Spaniards because they were very good with the ball. We had to plow the field all the time and not let them play their football, play against the ball. They did not give the opponent many chances.
- Southgate's team has your student, Aston Villa center back Ezri Konsa, who showed himself very well on England's way to the final.
- For me, he is the best defender in the tournament. It's great that he makes good use of the minutes he gets on the pitch.
- If England wins the Euros, how long will people be celebrating?
- Two weeks for sure (Smiles). It will be grand. The Royal Guard is already rehearsing the song It's Coming Home. When I saw it, it made me very happy, because they start preparing even before the final.
"It was hard to play simple football in Ipswich after Lobanovsky"
- When you came to Ipswich in 1988, the team played in League 2, which in the current EFL (English Football League) system has been reformatted into the Championship.
- At that time, we were fighting for promotion to the First Division, which was later reorganized into the Premier League. In my time, they were close. Ipswich played a completely different style of football then. Now the team plays nice football, owns the ball 70-80%, has a lot of legionnaires. When I arrived, it was a very simple team - hit and run, as they say.
At that time, the team was managed by a Scotsman, John Duncan, so he understood cross & shoot football. He always liked to repeat: "Serhii, don't pass, hit the ball into the fight". And I always told him: "I played football at Dynamo Kyiv."
- Is that what prompted you to leave Ipswich?
- When my contract came to an end, I told my agent that I would return to Dynamo. They don't play football at Ipswich. He told me that there is an option to go to Scotland, where the team does not play kick-and-run. I said that if they play football there, I will go. I don't want to play kick and run anymore.
My Ipswich teammate Ian Redford called the owner of the club and offered him my candidacy. When we met with him, my first question was not about money, but what kind of football St. Johnstone plays. I said that I was ready to play for them if the club played European football. He assured me that my fears were in vain. I was very happy to hear that, and only after that the question of money came up.
I had a great 3 years at St. Johnstone. The team was good. It was very interesting for me to play there.
- Did you regret that the choice in favor of Ipswich did not meet expectations?
- The football side was important to me. On the other hand, I immediately saw a different level of football. This is also a certain experience in terms of adaptation in a new country, it is a good experience, but I did not enjoy playing football.
There were few foreign coaches. The training process and philosophy of the game was wrong. It was noticeable to the naked eye when you come after Dynamo Lobanovsky.
- Which of the English clubs could compete with Dynamo?
- You can't have football like Lobanovsky's everywhere. The guys I played with in Ukraine are completely different. At the time, I thought that the level of football in England was much higher, but the reality was different. At that time, Liverpool was roughly on par with Dynamo.
Every Dynamo player was much stronger than every Ipswich player. We were playing one of the best teams in the world with one of the best coaches. This explains why we won the Cup of Cups, almost everyone in the USSR national team was Ukrainian. Mentally, we were accustomed to the fact that everything was better in the West, although it was not. I once experienced this for myself after two years in England.
When Lobanovsky asked me what I had learned, I said that we were and are the best.
Now Ipswich is playing modern football, like Man City and Arsenal, who are doing well. The British do not understand this fact. Can you name the last English coach who won the English Championship?
- Let me think... Probably the coach of Leeds in the last season before the Premier League? Howard Wilkinson coached Leeds United from 1988 to 1996. In the 1991/92 season, the Peacocks became the last winner of the First Division.
- I didn't know it myself until the English told me. After that, no English coach won anything at home or abroad. As the late Bobby Robson told me: "We think the whole world speaks English and we know football better than anyone else."
- Before the interview, I read that your dream of playing in England was born when you played against England (2:2) in 1984 as a member of the USSR national team. Is it true?
- Yes, it is. Lobanovsky told me that 4 teams from Spain, England, Italy, and Switzerland were interested in me. I preferred Ipswich because we often played friendly games with the English. I have always been impressed by English football's aggression, the game on the second floor, and the atmosphere at the stadiums. I really liked coming here. English football was very highly regarded at the time.
It was always very difficult to play with the English. We lost to Aston Villa a year before they won the European Champions Cup. I didn't even think I would stay here. I signed a contract with Ipswich for 2 years and then went to Scotland. I spent 3 years there and thought about returning, my children were growing up, I started working as a manager. It so happened that I got used to it here. I came for 2 years, and I have been living here for 35.
- What was football like in Scotland at the turn of the 80s and 90s?
- Celtic and Rangers dominated because they were strong in terms of finances. Next to them were Hibernian, Hearts, Aberdeen. "St. Johnstone was a good team. They had just entered the elite division. Every game was a full stadium, we were always in the top five or six. When I left to become a playing coach at Inverness, St. Johnstone were relegated.
In Scotland, clubs were very dependent on ticket sales. Every game of St. Johnstone was attended by 15-20 thousand fans. It was one of the good times in their history. I was also surprised that the locals were taught to support the local team, while we used to come to Moscow to play Spartak and half of Luzhniki would support us.
- Now there are more foreign coaches in Scotland. We can cite the example of Postecoglou, who gave results with Celtic and received an invitation to the EPL.
- In England, the financial side is better, so many Scots come to England from an early age. There are a lot of foreigners in Scotland, and 35 years ago I was one of the first because the requirements were very strict. I remember that I had to wait 2 months for a work visa, despite the fact that I was subject to the rule that a foreigner had to play 50% of the matches for the national team.
It was an interesting experience, because there was a time when I advised Ipswich to sign Misha Mikhailov, but he did not meet the criterion of matches for the national team and was denied a British visa.
"Dynamo did not receive a single penny for my transfer to Ipswich"
- Who else from that Dynamo team could have been on the other side of the Iron Curtain?
- I don't know. At one time, a Belarusian player named Gotzmanov played with me in England, who then joined Brighton. And then the boom began. Lekha Mykhailychenko, Oleh Kuznetsov, Andriy Kanchelskis came here.
- In Scotland, did you cross paths with your former teammates on the field?
- "We missed each other, and Oleg had bad memories of the match against St. Johnstone. We drew 1-1, and Kuznetsov suffered an injury to his ankle. Then he was sent to the States for surgery. I went to the Rangers locker room after the match, and he was immediately taken to the hospital. 3-4 days passed, and I was able to visit him at home in Glasgow.
- Was the language barrier easier than moving to the other side of the Iron Curtain?
- When I arrived here, I realized how much the Soviet propaganda machine had been screwing with the people. I was the first footballer from the USSR to come to the UK to play football. Relations were quite tense. They didn't know who we were, and we didn't know who they were.
