Alexei Zhamnov is the head coach of the Russian national team, his contract with FHR is valid until the summer. And on Tuesday he signed a two-year contract with Spartak.
From 2015 to the penultimate season, Zhamnov worked as the general manager of Spartak, and in the 2018/19 season he stood on the bench for the red and white. So he has that experience. But now he is entering this river for the second time.
“We must change the selection of the club”
– How did you come to the decision to lead Spartak? So I understand that the negotiations on this subject lasted more than a day?
– Spartak management made an offer. We talked for a month, discussed all the specificities of the club, the selection. There were lots of questions. The dialogue lasted a very long time. I needed to understand how Spartak was going to develop further. I see what needs to be done to improve. And when we came to a common denominator, we shook hands. I signed a two-year contract.
Management understands what needs to be done to improve. It’s clear that there are promising young guys who have played for Spartak this season. A lot of hockey players have come through the first team. There are good guys in Voskresensk (VHL’s Khimik), in the youth team. But for them to progress, the first team also needs skilled players to look up to. And not those players who are at the end of their career and can still show something, but not as hockey players at the national team level.
– Should Spartak’s budget be increased?
– I’m talking about the fact that we need punctual amplification. There are gaps in all lines – both in attack and defense. And the line of goalkeepers also needs to be strengthened. There are a lot of questions here.
Who will be in charge of management?
Basically, it will remain the same. Everything remains as it was. We just need to readjust.
“Kovalchuk does not need to advertise”
Who will be on your coaching staff? Who would you like to see?
— I have my sketches, candidates, but it is too early to announce. I want to talk to everyone – who is interesting, whom I want to see at Spartak headquarters. And after that, make a final decision.
– How important is it to invite as many people as possible from those you have worked with at the Olympics?
How are you going to invite them? All the guys are involved in their clubs. If they are assistants, they assume the role of head coaches in KHL clubs. It is clear that the head office will be completely different. There are guys I used to work with on a bench at Spartak. I take that into account too.
– Can Ilya Kovalchuk return to Spartak in a role?
– Why not? With him, and so the leadership of “Spartacus” communicates. He can always come back. But you understand, it is better to talk about this with Ilya and with the leaders of Spartak. After all, no one knows for sure what Ilya’s plans are, how he sees all this.
– Recently, Ilya in an interview with said that he has not yet announced his retirement. Can he play next season for Spartak? It would be a great story.
– I do not know, it is better to ask this question to Ilya. I can’t say anything for him. I have a good and close relationship with Ilyukha. But he must himself make such statements.
– You have a young team, and in the locker room you need an uncle-mentor.
Does he want to pursue his career or not? I think it’s tough – so much time to not play and get back on the ice. On the other hand, if Ilya Kovalchuk one day becomes a club manager, then even his entry into the dressing room will be important for the players. The man enjoys great prestige in the world of hockey. And Kovalchuk definitely doesn’t need to advertise!
“I will speak with Svechkov and Chibrikov”
– You are the head of Spartak Academy. Are you going to attract a lot of young people from the system?
– Children’s hockey is usually a painful problem. We have many parents involved in this business. But no one can say whether the child will play or not. It all depends on him, and it is clear that our focus is on coaching, so that the specialists try to pay attention to each player.
There are early juniors, there are latecomers. This is a very painful specificity for many parents. And each of them believes, believe me, that his son is much better than the others.
I had a lot of meetings, dialogues with the parents, and this is a very serious subject. When you see that a player is promising, progress is one thing. And when parents begin to get involved in the career of a young player who has not yet achieved anything, sometimes this has a bad effect on his fate. There are many nuances, and raising a future star is not very easy.
– Is it important for you to save Fyodor Svechkov and Nikita Chibrikov, or will they still go abroad?
“I will talk to each of them. And I want to understand what they want. Yesterday I came to hockey, watched the Spartak youth team. I saw the guys when they played for the first team. I want to meet everyone and discuss everything. Say what I see and hear their opinion.
– If the grandiose Alexander Nikishin trade didn’t happen, in which Spartak obviously lost, would the team have a chance of making the playoffs this year?
– It is impossible to speak unequivocally here. It’s clear that SKA has a player ready. It is a combat unit. Nikishin overtook the national team, played in the Olympics. He’s a youngster, one of the most promising defenders in Russian hockey.
This trade was made for sure with an eye on young guys who can open up and play in the future. But you yourself saw how it happened. Not everyone reached the expected level. Also, the guys in the cage on this exchange are playing overseas. Maybe next year we will see someone in Spartak if he comes back. So let’s see, this isn’t a one-year trade. Maybe in the future it will be a more profitable exchange for Spartak. Let’s see…
“Combination with national team work? Why not?”
– Do you want to continue working with the Russian team? Is the combination possible?
– Why not? You can see for yourself that the national team schedule is not so busy anymore. To remain inactive – you lose the trainer qualification. So the work within the club will only benefit.
– That is to say that the negotiations with the FHR are yet to come?
– I think so.
– Did you expect that this season you would be so reprimanded in the coaching council for the defeat of the Belarusians? Even though the December tournament was friendly.
– And when was there a different reaction if the team lost? There are no more tournaments. These are normal things, and I’m taking it slowly. At that time, we gathered those who could come. Because there were a lot of injured guys, someone flew out a few days before training camp.
We also took into account that some guys have to play Monday in the KHL. Someone is on a night flight. Therefore, they gave them more time, not putting them in the national team on Sunday. In general, it was originally scheduled that Russia would play on Friday and Saturday. But then the calendar got moved for some reason. But what should be stirred now? We did a debrief in December, the experts gave all the notes and drew some conclusions.
– Are you going to start working with Spartak now or only in July? What are your plans for the days to come?
– Now a lot of guys are involved in the MHL and VHL playoffs. As soon as they are free, we will bring them together and in the spring we will organize a small gathering to get to know each other better and discuss.
– Have you discussed separately how to avoid excessive pressure from the Spartak leadership? Oleg Usachyov, chairman of the club’s supervisory board, has a reputation for controlling many processes.
– To put it simply: we discussed all these nuances. And they arrived at a common denominator.
– There is a famous Conan Doyle story “Redhead Union”. Football “Spartak” is led by redhead Guillermo Abascal, hockey “Spartak” is now led by redhead Alexei Zhamnov.
– I was red, and now I have gray hair [смеется]! I remember Vladimir Yurzinov’s slogan that there should be a redhead in the team. So, for luck, we’ll be looking for a red-haired hockey player in the free agent market!
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I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
