- Appointment came as a surprise to you? After all, Igor Kolyvanov was considered a favorite.
- When I was offered this post, I was training in the second league Spartak from Vladikavkaz. The proposal came from the PFL, and not from the RFU, like everyone else. I was not surprised. Just waiting for someone to appoint. We didn’t throw lots. The RFU collected information about the candidates, made a decision, and here I am a coach.
- Did you watch the match with the Dutch? Will you see the same players in your team?
- Taranov, Shishkin, Kochubey, Kombarov, Kontsedalov will remain in it for sure. I plan to collect all the best players of the 86th year of birth and add players younger. Because even children born in 88 can, according to physical data, not inferior to the same Shishkin or Taranov.
- And how will you look for these players and determine that they are the best at their age?
- Our headquarters will study clubs not only in the Premier League, but also in the first and second divisions. True, the headquarters has not yet been created. But I will invite there coaches who will try not to miss the talented guys, even in the remote corners of the second league. A place in the national team will allow lower league prodigies to receive an invitation from the Premier League clubs. That is, we will help to arrange their future, we will not let the talents abyss.
- Usually it happens in a different way: a crafty agent is the first to find a gifted guy, puts him in a decent club, and then advises the youth coach to take a protege to the team.
- There is nothing to be done - any talented player immediately has an agent. It is very unlikely that I, for example, will be ahead of the agent, I will find a guy who does not yet have a patron. About two or three years ago, this could have happened. Not anymore. But even if our headquarters finds a future star in a provincial club, he will have an agent in a couple of days.
- Judging by past cycles, the influence of agents on youth is great ...
“I know.” But in determining the composition, the last word will be only for me. For me, the team and the result are more important than the interests of the agents.
- Players of the top clubs often got into the compositions of the previous convocations. Will you pay attention to them, since they called the name of Kochubey?
- I will give preference to football players with game practice. The guy who even plays in every match in the first division is more valuable to the youth team than a CSKA or Spartak player. For example, Pomegranate from the Dynamo take. He spent the last season in “Siberia”, regularly went out from the first minutes. I think there are many guys with similar fates, and all of them will be candidates for youth.
- You are not averse to attracting players under the age of 86 to the youth team. But after all, they are already being drafted into the junior (up to 19 years) and youth (up to 17) teams. Will you ask the coaches of these teams to lend a player?
- Not. If someone is really needed, for example, Kolyvanov or Ravil Sabitov, then I will not take him. We have a common cause. They have their own qualifying rounds. It happens that the player of the junior team has already outgrown his peers. Then the coach himself will offer him to try in the youth team. And I will not forcibly take away any of the junior teams. Yes, and I do not have this right.
- Your clubs did not differ in a large number of young players. Rather, the opposite. “Tom” and Vladikavkaz “Spartak” relied on experience. Why are you among the candidates?
- In the youth team, only the specifics are different. And football is one. Who cares if I worked with youth or not? But how many players passed through me, who then played in the national teams! For example, when I worked in a sports boarding school in Stavropol. I had such a guy in Spartak - Bakaev, born in 87. He spent most of the last season. Already called me, asked for the national team. But I can’t take him by acquaintance, I need to compare his level with the readiness of other guys. There is such a common expression: he has experience working with youth. So it is pointless. Such trainers are a myth. Everyone at the beginning of a career somehow encounters young players. I'm not an exception.
- Why did you leave Vladikavkaz Spartak? Any other suggestions?
- The goals did not match. I wanted to go to the Premier League and asked for the strengthening of the team. And in Vladikavkaz the leadership changed. He was good in the first division. And there were proposals - from the Premier League and from the Premier League of Ukraine. I refused before I found out that in Vladikavkaz they’re not aspiring to the Premier League. Therefore, for some time I was out of work. Until he was among the candidates for the current position.
Anton OTKIDACH