Athletistic / Soccer Wake me up in 100 years and I’ll tell you what’s going on at Spartak – they’re changing coaches. Leonid Fedun lives with a teenage understanding of football. If there’s someone he hasn’t proven that to yet, then that’s already a question for that “someone”. However, given the era of matriarchy in the current “Spartacus”, I do not presume to judge that this quirk comes from Leonid Arnoldovich. Another thing is that it makes little difference. Whether it was a whim of the club owner or his “hounded” – this is absolutely the tenth thing. It is important that the example of “Rubin” made it clear that with poor management, even favorites are not immune to collapse. And with disgusting – they are completely doomed.

Yesterday it was officially announced that the club had left head coach Paolo Vanoli and his coaching staff, and today it was announced the appointment of Spanish specialist Guillermo Abascal. The main reason for the departure of the first was that the Italian family insisted on it. However, some insiders even a month before the end of the season claimed that the management of the “red-whites” had made a decision on Vanoli, and it was not in his favor. And given that the coach wanted to continue working at the club, if the management were interested in keeping him, they would, with high probability, have achieved it.

As you probably already understood, in this material practically no characteristics of the Italian as a coach will be given. We will not even bother to tell at least in a few words the strengths and weaknesses of his successor. Much more important here is the systemic thing that has been going on at Spartak for many years. What kind of results can we expect from a team that fires its last two coaches six months after being appointed, and doesn’t care that neither of them even had a pre-season? normal?

Let’s go in order. Rui Vitoria took charge of Spartak on May 21, 2021 and the RPL season started on July 23. It is important to understand here that in Russia the season starts much earlier than in Europe, where the first games usually take place in mid-August. Russian club coaches have much less time for a full-fledged pre-season. Moreover, let’s add to this the fact that Vitoria is a foreigner who has never worked in Russia before. And therefore, he also needed more time to get acquainted with the specifics of working in Russia, and simply, in the end, to get to know the team.

How is the situation different with Vanoli? Nothing. Only by the fact that the Portuguese came to the club before the summer break and the Italian before the winter break. For the rest, it’s absolutely the same: knowing the Russian realities, knowing your own team, which takes time. Plus, of course, the most severe pressure, where without it?

But what is the result? Despite the obvious difficulties the two foreign specialists had to face before joining Spartak, Vitoria managed to take the team to the Europa League qualifiers from first (!) place in the group with Napoli and Leicester, and the second led “red-white”. ” to victory in the Russian Cup. Yes, it did not work out in the RPL, but when, excuse me, did the club make the first or the second for the last time? Result: Vitoria has was fired, and no one kept Vanoli.

It is difficult to understand why the management of such a giant of Russian football does not understand a simple thing: the quality of training can only be assessed when the coach has spent a full pre-season, knowing the team and the league that preceded it. even started. They set specific goals for coaches in the here and now, without even providing them with an elementary “start” in the form of several months of quiet work, followed by a full-fledged offseason. And after? Abascal, who will come to an environment unknown to himself, and who will immediately have to break 5-0 “Zenith”, and without completing this task, will be fired before the winter break?

Fans of the “red-white”, who have never been patient with the main coaches, were mostly against the dismissal of Vitoria and Vanoli. And this is where the party begins: while the supporters are unanimous in saying that the coach should be fired, as was the case with Kononov for example, Fedun considers it his duty to give him a another chance; when the fans believe that the coach is worthy of continuing to work at the club, the Spartak management decides to resign a month before the winter/summer break, as was the case with Vitoria and Vanoli.

Why the direction “Spartacus”? Apparently, to do everything contrary to the opinion of their fans. I repeat that it is absolutely irrelevant to find the “root of evil” – whether it was Fedun himself, Zarema or someone else (just kidding). The important thing is that the club owner is responsible for everything in any case. And the example of Kazan “Rubin” should absolutely alert the entire Spartak community – from veterans and fans to players and management. Despite the fact that in Kazan, perhaps, they clearly overestimate the “genius” of Leonid Slutsky, in Rubin, however, they understand much better than in Spartak that before evaluating coaching, the coach must dispose of all the conditions for its implementation. And it was this team that flew to the FNL. Not because in Tatarstan they understand football and the principles of building a team less well than in Spartak. And just because fate is a capricious thing – it usually forgives someone everything and punishes someone after the first mistake. Given the current realities of Russian football, the fate of the “red-whites” becomes alarming. If Fedun and the company do not increase their footballing skills as soon as possible and do not moderate their personal ambitions, fate may begin to “return the favors”.

However, is it worth the wait for this from someone who has been in the job for 18 years?

Pavel Novikov, Athletistic