- It was expected that several of you will come to Zenit with you - the figure was called “four” - high-class players. Lee Ho and Kim Tong Jin may correspond to a qualitative parameter of these expectations, but most certainly not to a quantitative one.
- These are great players, you will see this soon. I really expected that there would be four newcomers, not two. But at the stage of practical implementation of transfer plans, we were faced with the problem of the reluctance of many football players to go to Russia. First of all, I am talking about Europeans.
- About van Nistelrooy, Hasselbeinck, Fry, Ze Robert, Klasnic and Lucarelli, to be precise? According to PROport, the list of refuseniks of Zenit - possibly incomplete - looks like this.
- Here I would not want to specify. All the more so, as I hope, we still need efforts that require strengthening our position. But I must admit that I did not realize before how difficult European football players are to move to a Russian club.
- What is the reason? Obviously, not with the modest financial parameters of the contracts he offers.
“I think not with that.” The point is stereotypes. They are still pretty strong. Still, people still know little about Russia, about its championship. And they have nowhere to learn about him. For example, I am very interested in international football, but I saw the first matches of the Russian championship only after I arrived here.
- Was it difficult for you to decide to move to Russia? Remember the first reaction to the Zenit proposal?
- Reacted with interest. He consulted with colleagues, with his family - and quickly accepted the offer. Surprise? There was no particular surprise. I was already invited to Russia, to Moscow, two and a half years ago, when I headed the Dutch team - then, it seems, I was a little surprised. But that incident helped me take a closer look at the processes taking place with Russian club football. On the growth of the level of legionnaires, the level of ambition ...
- In connection with all this growth, the belief that the Russian championship has already outstripped the Dutch with the Portuguese and is approaching the French has spread. What do you think - overtook?
- I can’t give such assessments yet. I work too little time here and too focused on the state of “Zenith”. Let's get back to this issue in a couple of months.
- How do you like it - the state of “Zenith”?
- The team has great potential, and the club is ready to build it. Actually, that's why I'm here. But there are reasons for the fact that such a team is stuck in the lower half of the table. I managed to establish some of them, but I would not want to talk about them yet.
- What are the challenges facing Zenit this season? What are you waiting for?
- I look forward to a qualitative step forward in terms of the content of the game. But let's be realistic, it will take time. I just study the players, they me too. Re-equipment of “Zenith” is not finished yet. I repeat: the fact that the team is so low in the table had its own reasons.
“Could you name them all the same?” Very interesting. Well, at least one.
- I would like to correct them, but not to name them. But I’ll say something about it. It immediately struck me that at Zenit, many did not get pleasure from training. They are perceived as unavoidable costs of the profession. “Need to train?” Well, we’ll train ”- this, you know, is the approach. Training must be loved because it makes you better. Everyone in South Korea loved training, so it was very easy for me to work there.
- How much does the language barrier bother you?
- For now, it is in the way. However, I hope that we will be able to develop mutual understanding with the translator. I had a complete understanding with the South Korean translator. When I raised my voice, the translator also shouted, and, it seems, with the same intonation.
- You are known as a trainer who pays special attention to discipline - not only on the field, but also in everyday life.
- I really consider it extremely important. Practice shows that a person who is late, say, by the departure of the team bus, is late in the game.
- They also say that you are tough.
“I would prefer the word direct.” Direct and honest. If I'm dissatisfied with something - in the player or in general in a situation - I always talk about this.
- And your football is called defensive. At least from the point of view of the Dutch attack-oriented coaching school.
- This is the label that the Dutch media stuck to me. Absolutely pointless, if you look at the facts. For example, during my four seasons in PSV or 58 matches in the Dutch national team, these teams scored enough. Moreover, the label was glued at the same time, under the influence of emotions, when at Euro 2004 we lost to the Czechs, leading 2-0, and during the match I replaced Robben with Boswell. It really was a strange match, but I do not understand and do not accept the hysteria that they later arranged in newspapers and on TV.
- Yes, yes, I remember that back then there were threats of physical violence addressed to you that forced you to leave the Dutch team.
- Threats are also a myth. But everything else, in general, was. I’m not afraid of outside pressure, but then there was a real craziness, from which I wanted to go to hell — so I ended up in the UAE team, and then in South Korea. The press claims to me - as I realized at some point - were not related to the game. Everybody wanted to death that the national team was run by a young coach - van Basten or Gullit there. If this is my team, and not Marco van Basten, flew out in the first round of the playoffs of the 2006 World Cup, the Dutch newspapers would be choked with bile.
- When it will be possible to say that the “Zenith” that we see is the “Zenith” of the Lawyer?
- So you can say from my first day in St. Petersburg. I'm not going to hide behind my predecessors or someone else. The current “Zenith” is already my team. But it will take time to make it more cool.
- What do you mean by class? What football will you teach Zenit? Will the team switch to this typical Dutch 4-3-3 formation?
- To play 4-3-3, you need to have players who make such a scheme viable. Today, there are not enough such players in the team. If we talk about the vector of my efforts, then I want to achieve the optimal combination of game organization and creativity.
- Could you give some example that would make it possible to more clearly understand your ideas about cool football? Say since the last World Cup.
- Argentina national team. The fact that she flew so early is largely bad luck.
- On your wish list, after all, were black players?
- Yes. But why are you asking?
- Have you ever heard the phrase “There is no black in the colors of the Zenith?” Do you know about the racist sentiments of some fans?
- I heard something like that. In passing ... But is it really so serious?
- At least at Zenit blacks have never played before.
- You know, I would not want to answer such a question without consulting with the club management. I would not like to say reckless things. I worked for Glasgow Rangers for four years and am aware of the complexity of this kind of problem. But, in any case, none of the management told me that we should not invite players of one race or another.
- How much does it inspire you, or perhaps be embarrassed, by the fact that you appear in Russia simultaneously with another Dutchman, Guus Hiddink?
- Well, this is one of the evidence of the growth of football in the country ...
- You will inevitably begin to compare with each other, evaluate in the spirit of "better-worse." You and Hiddink succeeded each other in PSV, the Dutch and Korean national teams, and you must be fatally tired of such comparisons.
“They don't care about me.” And our personal relations with Gus are good, we are friends.
- You preferred to settle in a hotel rather than in your own house. Why?
- I arrived alone, without a wife, she will be in arrivals in St. Petersburg. When you live in a hotel, it’s easier to equip life.
- Have you seen the city? It is interesting to know what emotions he caused you.
- Walked a bit along Nevsky. I went to St. Isaac's Cathedral. And yesterday, the club gave me a canal tour. Emotions? You know, out of work, I'm completely not emotional. Even yesterday, on the channels, I could not get rid of thoughts about football. Analyzed the composition ... Yes, that’s what impressed me: the lack of English-language street signs. There are so many tourists here, the summit was. This, by the way, is about the stereotypes and misunderstanding of Russia by Europeans, with whom we started the conversation. Tell the mayor, because this is such an easy way to improve the impression of foreigners about the city.
- You never mentioned a bus that arrived at the wrong airport during your first Moscow departure with Zenit.
- An unpleasant story came out. How did I react? Calmly. He only suggested that at all subsequent Moscow departures we should be met in this city by our own, Zenit bus. The club agreed with me.
- Do you think this was not an accident?
“In Moscow, my teams played twice - the first time it was the Glasgow Rangers,” and there were problems with the bus both times. An accident, not an accident ... You know, I am a person who is used to relying on facts. But the facts are as follows.
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