Former defense attorneyDynamo » Yuri Kovtun recalled in an interview with how he reacted to the resignation of Valery Gazzaev as head coach of the Blue and Whites after a crushing defeat against German Eintracht in the UEFA Cup in 1993.
In the first round of the UEFA Cup in the 1993/94 season, Dynamo beat German Eintracht 0:6 at home in Moscow. After this match, Gazzaev resigned.
– You were invited to Dynamo, in fact, by Valery Gazzaev. What are your impressions of working together?
– I immediately joined an ambitious team, where there were high demands. Somewhere something cannot be improved, it has not passed. Nothing was done through the sleeves. But I was ready for it, because I had a good hardening in Rostselmash. It was enough to comply with the requirements. We have strived for high goals, played in European competitions.
– Pretty much European competition. Gazzaev resigned after losing 0-6 to Eintracht in the UEFA Cup. How can you explain what happened next?
– In principle, Gazzaev always put the team to the limit. Maybe there was an emotional overlap. Although even if you look at Dynamo’s roster by name, all of the players were individually strong. Nevertheless, as if in some team interactions we then lost focus, in some episodes the opponent simply outplayed us due to the usual competent actions on set pieces. It seems that we were ready, but we miss one, then the second… And there it is a purely psychological failure.
– Were you very surprised that Gazzaev decided to leave after the game?
– For a young player who joins a team with a coach who follows you very closely and bets on you, such changes are definitely unexpected. He accepted Valery Georgievich’s resignation with regret, although it was felt that his decision was deliberate.
– There is a story that, on the initiative of Nikolai Tolstykh, a vote was held among the players whether to leave Gazzaev. It’s true?
– Maybe something similar happened in individual conversations, because I don’t remember the votes of all the players in the dressing room. Perhaps the Tolstoys had some kind of misunderstanding with Gazzaev. They have always had a strained relationship. But Valery Georgievich was always for the players, he always stood up for them,” Kovtun told .
Kovtun played for Dynamo from 1993 to 1998.
Source : MatchTV
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