Sergei Gomolyako: “I am not ashamed of my work at Metallurg. And I’m not tired of hockey!

Former sporting director of Metallurg Sergei Gomolyako told how things went with his dismissal from the Magnitogorsk club.

Monday “Metallurgist” announced the resignation of Gomolyako from the post of sports director of the club. The agreement between the club and the official was terminated by mutual agreement between the parties. The functions of sports director will be temporarily carried out by the director of Metallurg, Alexeï Zhloba.

— Your dismissal is not clear. Metalworker injuries are terrible.

– You say that correctly. Artem Minulin is therefore now injured and Makar Khabarov is ill. This is in addition to everyone who has already been injured this summer. But we knew it was going to happen and we prepared for it. And when they offered us hockey players, Andrei Vladimirovich (Razin, head coach of Metallurg – approx. ) said that we have normal guys, everything will be fine and we will start with ours. On the contrary, we will hire young people, he loves working with them.

The guys showed a good game. We had to be patient, wait. Everything was supposed to be better.

It is clear that certain measures are necessary now. And Razin and I decided who we would try to replace with whom. They say we need a central system. But no one says where to find a center forward. If we had our own VHL club earlier, we might have managed to raise someone. And suddenly, everything was postponed…

There are some young ones, but they are completely raw. They will play a few matches at a good level, but then they will decline. It is clear that we will have to wait for the injured Denis Zernov and Romka Kantserov to come out. Now Razin says we have a non-championship team. So it’s understandable. We were missing five leaders! Additionally, Vovchenko was injured during the preseason. It is clear that we had to be patient.

– What are your plans now?

– I’m at home for now. I have a lot of dogs, now I have the opportunity to keep them more. Or go to the store, for example. I’m in Magnitogorsk for now, then I’ll fly to Moscow.

Many times my friends invited me to join a company. But I never wanted to go there. Maybe it would have worked there. But I know hockey well. And I want to work in hockey.

I want to continue working in the KHL. I’m open to suggestions.

– So you’re not tired?

– Under no circumstances! Ready to continue working.

— It’s strange that Metallurg hasn’t offered you any position to stay. In the same scout service. Even though you only have one scout for three teams, he works as hard as he can and you helped him. Is this so?

– Yes, they didn’t offer it.

— “Metallurg” and “Severstal” made an exchange, striker Dmitry Moiseev went to Magnitogorsk, and Cherepovets received monetary compensation. Is it true that you participated in this?

– No, I had nothing to do with this exchange.

— You have built a champion team. I’m sure there will be suggestions.

“But I’m not ashamed of my work.” I worked for three years at Metallurg – once we reached the final, another time we won the Gagarin Cup. A season was wasted and Petrovich (Ilya Vorobyov) and I discussed that he should change his tactics a bit. I didn’t succeed. But we kept almost the entire composition. Now the team has become younger and faster. I wish the guys good luck. Although it will be a little difficult this year after such a start. But everything should work out, because we really have a championship team. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else says,” Gomolyako told .

Gomolyako has been Metallurg’s sports director since December 2020. In 1995-2000 and 2002-2003, Gomolyako was a Metallurg player and from 2011 to 2013 he was a member of the Magnitogorsk club’s coaching staff.

As a civil servant, Gomolyako became a two-time winner of the Gagarin Cup (2014, 2024).

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