Athletistic / Football. It is quite possible that on March 13 the intrigue of the RPL championship race came to an end. The dismissal of Vladimir Ivich from the post of head coach of Krasnodar caused shock among football experts and misunderstandings among the public.
The 46-year-old Serbian specialist took charge of Krasnodar in January 2023, replacing Viktor Goncharenko. In the first months of his work, Ivich adjusted the game of the Bulls in defense and managed to lead the team to the final of the Russian Cup. However, the victory of the first trophy in the club’s history was postponed again, as Igor Akinfeev once again used his magic in the penalty shootout.
Over the summer, Ivic continued to toe his line and introduced a number of interesting tactical changes to the southerners’ game and, together with the club’s sports department, also managed to achieve a number of significant transfers. “Krasnodar” started the current RPL season very successfully and eventually managed to become the winter champion of the country for the first time in its history. However, after only two rounds in the spring of the RPL, Vladimir Ivich remained unemployed.
It is absolutely unfair that we are deprived of the opportunity to attend the championship race. Ivic made a significant contribution to the development of Krasnodar and deserved the opportunity to finish at least the current season. It is clear that the “bulls” are having a lot of trouble approaching the second part of the season and have already managed to let Zenit get ahead of them. But the gap with the blue-white-blue is now only one point. Anything can happen in the remaining 10 rounds of the Russian Championship, and that’s certainly no reason to burn bridges. However, everything is not so simple. Rumor has it that the reason for the dismissal was due to unsportsmanlike moments.
History of the conflict
Everyone knows that Krasnodar is a special club. Its creator, owner and first person is Sergey Galitsky. Throughout the club’s history (since February 2008), the businessman has said that his team’s style of play is more important to him than the result. The “bulls”, according to the billionaire, must demonstrate brilliant and offensive football, sometimes to the detriment of the result. This has been the case throughout the club’s history. But with the arrival of Ivich, a lot has changed. The Serb was a pragmatist and understood that romantic football would no longer bring trophies. Even though there was a result and chemistry within the team, Galitsky turned a blind eye. But now, during a series of failures, he remembered his postulates. In the fall, rumors circulated in the media that only victories could save Ivic from being sacked. And in the spring, the Serb lost this asset.
Photo source: FC Krasnodar
The first official match of 2024 for Krasnodar was the home match of the 19th round of the RPL with Rubin. The match ended in a draw with a score of 1:1, and the “bulls” conceded the goal at the very end of the match. Now there are rumors that after the match, general manager Vladimir Khashig rushed into the team’s locker room and began questioning the players loudly. After that, Ivic allegedly kicked Khashig out of the locker room, which is why he harbored a big grudge against the Serb. Whether this is true or not, we are unlikely to know, but it is definitely impossible to say that such information from journalists is fiction.
In the next match, Krasnodar lost to Rostov. The southern derby took place on March 8 in Rostov-on-Don and ended in favor of Valery Karpin’s team with a score of 2:1. The same media report that after this failure, Galitsky directly addressed Ivich with complaints. Sources note that this time, the Serb did not make any ceremony and did not mince his words. There is no way to verify this data, but it also fits well into the Russian football narrative.
Ivic’s last match in Krasnodar was the 1/4 final match of the Russian Cup on the way to the regions with Khimki. On March 12, the Moscow region club unexpectedly defeated the Bulls with a score of 2:0 and eliminated one of the leaders of Russian football from the tournament. The next day, Vladimir Ivitch was fired.
What to do next?
The news of Ivic’s dismissal surprised everyone and so the media can only guess who will replace him. So far, sources are courting Murad Musaev and Alexander Storozhuk, who previously worked with the Bulls, to the Krasnodar club. But in sports, it is extremely rare to enter the same river twice, so such options seem, to put it mildly, controversial. Another candidate for the vacant position is Andrey Talalaev. It was him and his Khimki who put the final nail in Ivic’s coffin in the Bulls camp. But will the Khimki coach want to leave a leading club in the First League and which displays brilliant and interesting play in the middle of the season? Anything can happen in Russian football, but such a move certainly cannot be called logical.
Photo source: FC Khimki
Krasnodar is lucky that the RPL has now started a break. This is due to the postponement of the 21st round to April (due to the presidential elections in the Russian Federation), as well as the imminent interruption of the matches of the national teams. The Krasnodar team will play their next match in 18 days – on March 31 they will play against Lokomotiv in Moscow. And therefore, the southern management has time to look for a new coach.
Well, even before his dismissal, Ivich was courted at Spartak Moscow. Now these rumors will increase exponentially until he is named to the red and white club, or another specialist comes to the same place.
conclusions
The decision to dismiss Vladimir Ivitch currently raises many questions. We will not receive responses. However, we will be able to assess the correctness of such a move very soon – after the end of the season. Parting ways with a coach is not an easy thing, and only good reasons could motivate management to take this step while they are in the race for the championship. If the new coach manages to lead Krasnodar to a historic (because first) championship, then all questions will immediately be resolved and Ivic’s dismissal will be recognized as justified. If this does not happen and the team collapses, then criticism from the entire club vertical will be inevitable.
Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
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