“It’s time for Radulov to start changing. Who needs problem gamblers? Mayorov – about the conflict in “Ak Bars”

On Friday, Ak Bars announced that Radulov removed from the main team and will not participate in the meeting with Neftekhimik. Ak Bars head coach Oleg Znarok, commenting on the decision, said that “we have no more untouchables”.

— We know Radulov as a lively, energetic and sometimes unpredictable person. It is possible that in everyday life he will do unexpected things, says Mayorov. – Especially when you know he plays hockey, and he doesn’t chop wood. This is precisely where Znark’s difficulties, as a coach, in managing such a player lie. Apparently, something happened that forced the team’s management to remove their leader from the roster. In general, it is surprising that Ak Bars, with a chic line-up, plays so unintelligible. On the eve of the match between Kazan and Ufa, there was a lot of talk that this match would decide everything. But Ak Bars again lost, and apparently Znark’s importance for the club turned out to be higher than Radulov’s. Certainly Znarok remains, but I think that already, too, with certain conditions.

– It is known that Radulov has a quick temper, Znark, at least, is not easy. Is it difficult for two undisputed leaders to get along on the same team? Especially when the team is not doing well?

– This is where Znark needs to think. One of the main qualities of a coach is patience. You have your own character and about twenty characters under your command. And you and the players will always look at certain things differently. The main concern of the coach is to bring these different characters to the same denominator. If it doesn’t work, it’s very bad. If a strong player or, God forbid, a group of players has a different denominator, then big problems immediately begin in the team. She could collapse.

– In the current situation, should Radulov ask for a trade or reconsider his attitude towards himself and continue playing for Ak Bars?

– Radulov should also draw conclusions from the current conflict situation. The club has made a difficult decision. And now, first of all, the player has to think about how he should live. Alexander should think – why leave such a good team? And then the earth is full of rumors. After such a story, he cannot be taken to another club. Who needs problem gamblers? It’s time for Radulov to start changing. After all, the sunset of a career is not far off. But in everyday life – everything is different, no one will take into account its complex character. And in hockey, you have to understand that the striker’s game is not as brilliant as it was ten years ago.

– Previously, Radulov and Znark already had contradictions at the level of the Russian national team. The conflict arose after the unsuccessful performance of the Russians in the December tournament in Moscow in 2015. Maybe this story has returned to the background?

– Surely after this story some kind of sediment remained. Radulov and Znark had to keep in mind that the situation would repeat itself. They say time heals everything. But maybe not in this case.

– Znarka managed to put other well-known players on the bench. So, at the 2018 Olympics, another current striker of Ak Bars, Vadim Shipachev, turned out to be offside in the decisive matches. Are these measures justified in principle?

– It’s a completely different story. Shipachev didn’t show anything special at these Olympics. In tournaments as big and short-lived as the Olympics, you shouldn’t consider the relationship between coach and player at all. No coach at the Olympics will take revenge or persecute a hockey player. Znarka then simply did not like Shipachev’s game. As a result, our team won gold, so the coach was right.

– Now Shipachev’s game at Ak Bars is clearly not going well either. Especially compared to what he showed last season at Dynamo.

– It is possible that, having got used to the role of absolute leader in Dynamo, Shipachev will not be able to adapt to the demands of Znark. The striker must be assisted by the game system. And I don’t think that the current style of the Kazan club contributes to Shipachev revealing himself and showing his best qualities.

– Boris Alexandrovitch, you yourself were a player with character and a no less tough coach. Have you ever been involved in similar conflicts between a coach and a player? How do they usually end?

– I was also expelled from Spartak. The ideologue of this was Mr. Igumnov. He thought I was challenging. I didn’t have a game at the time. I broke out once during training, the second … Igumnov decided that he had to part with me. True, three days later they fired me and even apologized. Even though I didn’t do anything. Nikolai Ivanovich Karpov, who also took part in my withdrawal, no longer being a coach, but retired, repeatedly asked me for forgiveness for this.

– When you yourself became a coach, did you have difficult conflicts with the players?

We worked under completely different conditions. We had no financial control levers. For example, he could not reduce the player’s salary. He was supposed to receive it according to the staffing table. I could not send a player to the reserves – they were short, there were no agricultural clubs or youth teams at that time. Only in the sense that Viktor Tikhonov had leverage in the form of a national team, but we didn’t. It was a little easier to work on the periphery. There, the clubs paid the player 250 rubles a month – which was required by law. Additionally, bonuses have been added to the left. And thanks to these bonuses, the players could at least be influenced in one way or another. But Spartak never had extra income in my life.

– What do you think is the main reason for Kazan’s failures in the current championship?

– In team management. You cannot count on the fact that good hockey players are gathered in the list, and everything will go by itself. Now it won’t work anymore. All teams know how to face stronger opponents and have their own patterns. Znark must also find its own clear patterns, into which the well-known players gathered in Ak Bars will fit. Including Radulov.

– So you propose to the coach to “tighten the screw” in the team?

– Absolutely not necessary. To find out, you have to be inside the team. Perhaps, on the contrary, the nuts are already too tight, and that is annoying. Coaches need to look for the best option.

Ak Bars have had a poor start to the season and now sit seventh in the Eastern standings, 13 points behind conference leader Metallurg. Radulov is currently the team’s top scorer with 15 (8+7) points. This summer, the famous forward returned to Russia after six seasons in the NHL. Kazan will play their next home game on Sunday against Neftekhimik.