"It is necessary to break the psychology of a minor participant in a big game"
The football club "Pari Nizhny Novgorod" is having another difficult season. Last summer, he once again changed the leadership of the sports block, and in the fall, for the fifth time in three years, he changed the head coach — Viktor Goncharenko replaced Sasha Ilich. This has not yet given a dramatic improvement in the result — in the current Russian championship, Paris NN is in 14th place in the zone of transitional matches, as a result of which it barely escaped relegation from the RPL in the previous two seasons. At the same time, the team was only five points ahead of the direct relegation zone six rounds before the finish.
In the winter, the club partially updated the squad, but the separation from a number of players turned into public scandals. In particular, midfielder Danila Vedernikov, after collecting things from the Paris NN locker room, left his cleats there, on which obscene insults were written against the sports director of the Nizhny Novgorod club, Alexander Udaltsov, and his deputy, Vladimir Rykov. In an interview with Izvestia, David Melik-Huseynov, CEO of Paris NN, commented on these scandals, explained the personnel mess at the club, declared full confidence in Goncharenko, and also spoke about the reaction to goalkeeper Nikita Medvedev's disqualification for insulting match officials and breaking the door. He also spoke about the situation with Anton Mukhin, a football player from the Nizhny Novgorod team on loan from Dynamo Vladivostok, who on April 10 said that he had been beaten to the point of concussion by the president of the Far Eastern club, Eduard Sadler.
— How do you assess the situation with Anton Mukhin?
— I have already said before and I repeat: we must act within the framework of the regulations and not be guided by any emotions and spontaneous thoughts on this matter. After all, football should unite people and clubs, and not start a war between them. Therefore, we are in favor of a constructive resolution of this situation and for actions within the framework of the existing RFU regulations. Right now, we are working as a priority to ensure that Anton Mukhin recovers faster. He receives the necessary medical care in medical institutions in Vladivostok. We hope that Anton will recover quickly. And we will continue to take the following steps, including in the legal field. I'm in touch with him every day. He calls me, I call him. In addition to the employment relationship with Mukhin, we also have a purely human communication. And we at the club are trying to support him and make him understand that he is not alone in this situation, even though he is now geographically far from Nizhny Novgorod.
— Paris NN broke its losing streak in the last match against Dynamo Moscow, but it is still in the zone of transitional matches with the risk of being in the relegation zone. Is there a panic about a possible departure?
— There is definitely no panic. I am sure that the guys also understand the current situation, which they themselves allowed. There is a desire to start correcting this story, and the players also have this desire. The club does everything for this. And I did everything I could before that. In winter, the best possible conditions were created for training camps. And during the March break for the national team games, the guys flew off to train on good, non-spring fields, where there was no mud, snow, or rain. And we were preparing well for the next matches. We pay salaries and bonuses on time. The most comfortable conditions are created not only for football players, but also for their families and loved ones. Therefore, I think that football players should realize that they are backed not only by the logo on their T-shirts and the coaching staff, but also by a city with an 800-year history. I hope that the fans have reached the hearts of our players.
— How will the club get out of the current situation?
— Due to the quality of the game. In general, we have it. And in fact, the level of football players in terms of their physical characteristics and quality is adequate for the RPL. What is missing is certain settings related to the level of motivation and motivation for the matches. I hope Viktor Mikhailovich will be able to rebuild this. However, we have already seen from the last match against Dynamo Moscow (1-1) that the team came out with a completely different attitude than it was in the game against Orenburg (1-2) a round earlier.
— Don't you think that the club was too quick to change the head coach in the fall? It's clear that it's easy to talk in hindsight, but before Sasha Ilich's dismissal, Paris NN won away from its direct competitor Orenburg (2:1) in the first round, snatched a draw with Akron (2:2) in the end, that is, the team was ready to fight to the end. At least it didn't get any better with Goncharenko's arrival.
"I don't think so. We talked for a long time with the previous head coach and understood that the adaptation in Russia, the understanding of football in the Russian Premier League, and some aspects related to daily work are slightly different here than in Europe. There are more sunny days there, there is not even the idea that you can play football in the snow, logistics are more comfortable there than here. I boarded a plane and arrived. And we have to travel by bus to many matches, as we did in March when we went to visit Rubin in Kazan. We traveled there from Nizhny Novgorod by bus for more than five hours — of course, this affects the physical condition of the players. Both sides — the club and the previous coaching staff — understood all this perfectly. And it was better to leave on a certain ridge, at a certain height, than to leave as an outsider.
— Based on these words, there are no limits to your generosity — now Sasha Ilic can quite reasonably say that he left the team in 11th place with a three-point gap from the joint zone, and now in 14th place in this joint zone.
— And Sasha Ilich is also a noble man. He understood everything perfectly and spoke honestly with us. Accordingly, the club also behaved like a human being.
— You said that in Europe there is no idea of playing in the snow. But Ilich worked at Paris NN from April to early October, when there was no snow.
— It's already started. And most importantly, we monitored and analyzed the situation. We saw and anticipated that we were not entering the winter part of the season quite correctly. There were certain moments that led us — me personally and the sports department of our club — to believe that this could be a setback.
— A year ago, Viktor Goncharenko flew out with Ural through transitional matches, and now he can also participate in them with Paris NN. What is being done to avoid such a negative scenario?
— It's hard for me to say what conditions Viktor Mikhailovich had at Ural. But I can say with confidence that we have given him maximum autonomy. Viktor Mikhailovich is a creator in training, when preparing the team for matches and during the game. No one dictates terms to him, but only creates work opportunities. If we need team building, we'll do it. If we need to go to additional training camps, we'll go. We are now fully fulfilling the tasks that Viktor Mikhailovich sets for the club and the office.
— Are the rumors true that Goncharenko could have been fired if the fifth defeat in a row had happened following the results of the last match with Dynamo Moscow (1-1)?
— This is fundamentally wrong information. The board of directors did not meet before the match with Dynamo, and the issue of the head coach's resignation was not on the agenda. Of course, everything is measured by the standings, but at the moment the issue of changing the coaching staff within the club has not even been discussed.
— Can you explain why the managers and coaches of Paris NN are constantly changing from season to season, and the result is the same for the third consecutive season — a nervous struggle for survival at the end of the championship with a finish in the joint zone?
— You know, you can, of course, as it used to happen, say that we are the club with the smallest budget in the Russian Premier League, and explain everything with this. But I don't think this fully explains the result we have now. Moreover, the recent 2-1 victory of Dynamo Makhachkala over Spartak completely refutes this theory. Yes, the match was somewhat abnormal in terms of statistics. The Makhachkala team played well in the first half, preventing Spartak from creating anything, but they bounced back in the second. I remembered this match because this season Makhachkala has an even smaller budget than ours. Nevertheless, the team is confidently moving out of the joint zone.
— Then what are the constant problems of Pari NN?
— It seems to me that it's more a question of psychology, of relationships within. The entire coaching staff, most of the team, has changed. And there is such a psychology that we are somewhere near Moscow. Not at the level of Moscow, but near Moscow. This is the psychology of a minor participant in a big game — it needs to be broken. Nizhny Novgorod is also the capital. How many titles of capitals have been brought to our city in recent years. "The Capital of Youth", "The Capital of sunsets". It is also the geographical capital of the Volga Federal District. So in terms of sports and football, we also need to strive for this status — to show a cool and vibrant game. The psychology that we are somewhere near Moscow needs to be changed. Maybe it's passed down from generation to generation, so there's some kind of tightness and clampdown somewhere. And we are no worse. Is our Juan Boselli worse than some Spartak or Dynamo Moscow striker? No. His level is quite high. There are many offers for him, including from abroad and from our top clubs. And everyone should think in a way that is no worse than Moscow. We need to finish with the psychology of the second ticket.
— What is the psychology of the second ticket? The perception of Nizhny Novgorod not as a self-sufficient place, but as a city four hours away by high-speed train from Moscow, where you can get a job on a residual basis if you haven't found yourself in the capital?
— Yes, to wait, to watch, to observe. Wait for a pause. Use it as some kind of springboard. I think that this psychology needs to be broken. And it's not about money. I repeat, last season we were the last in terms of budget in the RPL. Now it is higher than Makhachkala and about on the same level with Fakel and Orenburg. And there are clubs where they don't pay salaries for three months.
— Are you talking about Khimki?
— Yes, they have a difficult situation now. I respect this club and I remembered about the debts only to the fact that almost all the teams of the second eight have problems. Didn't the Wings of the Soviets have them? Let's recall the scandals surrounding the club recently. I mean, everyone has problems, so our constant difficulties are not a matter of money, but of mentality. We need a mentality that we are not some kind of secondary players, but can impose the game on the first number.
— For the third season, Pari NN has a major bookmaker partner, whose name is even included in the club's name. At the same time, along with the region, he participates in management, in appointing people to various positions. Don't you feel that this lack of a single decision-making center is harmful?
— Strategic issues are submitted to the board of directors, we have a sports unit that is responsible for recruiting, transfers and selection. No one interferes with the work. There is no discord. There are a lot of people who say that I have some kind of personal conflict with Udaltsov - there is no such thing. It's just that someone needs to say that in order to sow the idea in the minds of journalists and, first of all, football players, that something is wrong with us. At a recent meeting with the fans, I addressed both them and the team: "Guys, don't listen to the nonsense that is being talked around. Don't even think about it, reflect on it. It's better to talk to me personally, with Udaltsov and the team. Everything will become clear." At the same time, I asked on behalf of the entire club and, in particular, the sports block, to apologize for possible nuances related to the way the players left Paris NN. These breakups could have been made better, more beautiful.
— Are you talking about Dmitry Zhivoglyadov, Ilya Zhigulev and Danila Vedernikov?
— Including these guys. I apologized to them for the way they left. But this is a big sport where expectations are high. And the guys, at least, they told me personally.: "David, no complaints." Yes, there are working moments, the players defend their position in the negotiations on the termination of contracts, we as a club defend ours. But there is no such human hatred that is pumped on social networks. There is no such negative attitude towards certain people, whether it's Udaltsov, me or someone else.
— Maybe not to you personally, but at least Vedernikov has access to Udaltsov and Rykov, judging by the inscriptions he made on his boots.
— Danila is a good football player. But there should still be some kind of stop. We still have to communicate culturally. If you think that something was done wrong to you, come and talk to me. It is necessary to turn off negative emotions — they are for the poor. If you want to be poor in spirit, constantly worry, wind yourself up, then it all turns into neuroses, into various chronic sores. I say this as a Candidate of pharmaceutical Sciences and former Minister of Health of the Nizhny Novgorod region. If that's what you want, okay, then stop it. Maybe no one stopped Danilo from doing such an act in time — there was no one nearby who would take his hand and say, "You know, friend, let's solve your question in a different way." In the end, he solved it the way he decided. And as a result, this issue has not really been resolved — the negative remains. I would like to take this opportunity to address Danila, Zhigulev, our wonderful Ilya Kukharchuk, and our other former football players and say that I respect them all. After he left, I wished the same Zhigulev a happy birthday and a Happy New Year.
"Did he answer?"
— Yes, yes, I answered. We communicate well. We just need to change the relationship within football, or at least within our team, to a win-win strategy. Everyone should benefit from this — the club, the players. There should be no destruction.
— One more question about Vedernikov. In an interview with Sport 24, he talked about meeting you and Udaltsov in your office. According to Danila, he said that since Paris NN had decided to break up with him, he could have said so in December, not February. Udaltsov replied that he had written to Vedernikov's agent about this in December. Vedernikov asked to see the correspondence with the agent, Alexander did not do it. After that, Danila told you that he would only communicate with you, Udaltsov left the office, and you and Vedernikov agreed on the terms of termination of the contract. Can you tell me your version of this episode?
— I won't hide it, there was an emotional argument. And Danila actually asked Udaltsov to leave us alone. It was done culturally, without raising tones. We talked for five minutes and shook hands, agreeing on the terms. But there was no such thing as someone kicking someone out, talking with aplomb and towering over me or the sports director - Vedernikov did not do that.
— How did you react to Nikita Medvedev's disqualification?
— He is an emotional person. I sincerely respect him. They tried to support him before the decision of the RFU KDC on disqualification, they gave cuts of similar episodes with similar emotional breakdowns, where the players expressed themselves even worse. Nikita himself apologized publicly for the episode. As a result, the RFU appeals committee edited the initial decision of the KDC, reducing the suspension from two matches to one, and Medvedev will be able to play in the next match with Lokomotiv. I can also say that we have installed a special rubber bag in the shape of a human head near the team's locker room, on which the fighters train. They called him Gosha. Now, if someone is emotionally wound up in the team, they can come up and give this rubber bag a bream. This is done to release negative emotions. It's better to beat Gosha than the doors.
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