Former forward of Kyiv’s “Dynamo” Viktor Leonenko commented on the dismissal of Imad Ashur from “Polissya”.
— Today “Polissya” fired Ashur. What do you think about this?
— I think, like all normal people, that Ashur should not have been invited at all. Who did he coach and what did he prove? With such success, one could have invited a coach from Mars. As far as I remember, Ashur is an appointee of the famous and progressive PASS. I would have fired him a long time ago for this progressive-proactive football — “half-flanks”, “counter-pressings”, “25th zones”. They’ve made up all sorts of words, but the play hasn’t improved. They are just fooling the presidents! It feels like the presidents of our clubs are about 15 years old.
— It’s strange that he was fired two rounds before the end of the championship. Was it done for a psychological shake-up of the team or did patience simply wear thin?
— That’s unprofessional when presidents fire coaches 2-4 rounds before the championship ends. It speaks to the fact that amateurs are working at “Polissya”. And who accepted “Polissya”, wasn’t it Shevchuk?
— Oleksandr Maksymov, who coached the U-19 team.
— I see, I thought it was Shevchuk. Slavic is active, so I wouldn’t be surprised. Where hasn’t he been: at “Olympik”, “Veres”, “Rukh”, and he was bringing cars from England for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Slavic is just everywhere. I joke with him and say: “Why did you buy a house in Kyiv for a million dollars if you’re hardly ever home?”.
— Who would you like to see as the head coach of Polissya in the new season?
— Zavarov or Bezsmertnyi.
— Strange choice.
— Why? They are good coaches and know our football perfectly. Bezsmertnyi has been working for a long time, but he is always being fooled. When he led FC “Poltava” to the UPL, the president ended and disbanded the team.
— But Zavarov hasn’t coached in a long time.
— What difference does it make, he’s still at “Dynamo”! Maybe that’s why they won’t take him, or maybe he doesn’t want to coach himself anymore. Although he is still young and to the legend they give at 78 years, he still has a long way to go (laughs — note A. P.).
— Do you think we will still see Ashur at the head of some Ukrainian club?
— Our presidents will certainly invite him. We like to shuffle coaches. Our presidents want to show that they understand football, but in reality — they don’t.
Andriy Piskun