"I don't think we'll be unbanned until the summer of 2026 at the earliest."
In mid-January, most RPL clubs will start their winter training camp before the spring part of the season. Recently, the traditional medical examination after the vacation was conducted by the players of Pari Nizhny Novgorod, which after 18 rounds is in 12th place in the standings. The team failed at the beginning of the championship, which led to a change of head coach in October: Viktor Goncharenko replaced Sasha Ilic. In the spring, the club will try to keep a place in the RPL, in which it plays since 2021. In an interview with Izvestia, Pari NN midfielder Alexander Troshechkin shared what the new head coach has brought, commented on last year's high-profile statements by Samara Region governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev about refereeing and talked about his most unusual vacation.
"This season the league is objectively weaker"
- How did you spend the New Year holidays?
- Wonderful. First, I spent a vacation with my wife - rested at the sea.
- Where?
- This time we flew far away - to Mauritius. I liked it very much - exotic. It takes a long time to fly, with a connection, but it is worth it: you can both actively relax and lie on the beach. There are all conditions for this. We enjoyed it very much. And then we came back to Moscow and our whole family went to the dacha for a week, where we celebrated the New Year.
- What was special about Mauritius?
- There were whales, we swam with them. In general, this island in the Indian Ocean has very beautiful nature. Probably we didn't have time to do a lot of things there, because we were advised to do a lot more, but you can't do everything in 11 days - then you won't have enough time to just relax and lie on the beach, and that was one of the goals. The most vivid impression - swam with whales. This is one of the few places where you can see them and swim with them in their natural habitat.
- Was that the most unusual place you spent your vacation?
- Yes. Everything else was pretty typical. But this time my wife and I decided to choose something original. Nastya and I had a hard year: our first child was born, we spent a lot of energy and time to get used to all the everyday moments that are associated with it. Thank you that we managed to leave him with his grandmother for a while before the vacation and rest alone together - my wife and I needed it to recover our strength. And it worked.
- In what should "Pari NN" improve in order to perform better in the new year than in the past?
- In everything, because we have problems in all aspects and everywhere there is room for improvement. Last year in general was very difficult. The spring was especially difficult, when we barely avoided relegation from the RPL following the results of the transition matches with Arsenal Tula (1:2; 2:0), where everything was decided only in the return game away. In the new season the situation seems to be a bit better. In any case, for the winter break we left in the table above the zone of transition matches. But I would like more - compared to the summer-autumn of 2023, we are clearly short of points, if we compare what we approached the winter then, and with what we have now (in the season-2023/24 after 18 rounds to the winter break "Paris NN" had 24 points, now at the same stretch - 16. - Ed.). Now we will work at the training camp. There is a lot of time to build the game tactically and gain physical fitness.
- Compared to last season, has it become harder or easier to fight for survival in the RPL?
- If we compare with the spring part of last season, the championship has definitely become weaker. Last year, teams like Baltika and Sochi, who looked very good in the spring, were relegated directly. We looked worse, but we got out due to a good fall part, when we played great and created a good margin of points. But in general, the season was such that no one wanted to leave and everyone clung to the last. Plus, as a result of the transition matches Ural left, and this is a team that has always been a strong mid-table team in the RPL. This season the league is objectively weaker, and the large gap in the table between the top and bottom halves emphasizes this.
"I think Viktor Mikhailovich has some recipes, which we will see at the training camp"
- Did the injury in last season's return transition match in Tula affect your play in the current championship?
- Yes, but it's more of a coincidence. I got injured, missed almost the entire summer preseason and returned only three days before the end of the last training camp. I almost had a relapse, and I started to work with the team only in the week before the first round of the championship, but I was not even included in the starting match with Rubin. Then I was already gaining form and almost did not play in the first nine rounds, although I think that I was ready a little earlier. It is clear that the coaching staff has its own views on soccer, but I think that the playing time was not enough in the end. That's why I'm glad that with Goncharenko's arrival I played more in the main squad, although in general you should try to help the team in any capacity. And I try to do it as much as I can. But now, compared to last season, we have fewer points in this part of the championship. We will work, and I think Viktor Mikhailovich has some recipes, which we will see at the training camp. I heard that his training camp is very hard. I think that we will enter the spring a little bit different team. Hopefully, I'll be an important part of it like I was last season.
- Taking into account how many players have changed in "Paris NN" since the summer, weren't you worried that this staff turnover would affect you?
- I read the news about my alleged departure. But I have a very good and close dialog with the club managers, and I can learn everything at once from the first hand. They denied the news and told me not to read newspapers. We'll see what happens next. I kind of also realize that in general this news is not difficult to make up. If a player didn't play much in the first part of the season, then maybe his departure will be considered. Now I'm in Nizhny, preparing for the season with him, and then we'll see - definitely not everything depends on me. If they come to me and say something about it, then we will communicate. But I think it is unlikely that it will happen without my desire.
- You expect hard training camps under Goncharenko. And what new things has he brought without them, for two months of work in "Pari NN" before the winter break?
- The training process has changed under him. There is more power soccer, in the sense that we play in small spaces, where there is a lot of fighting and tackling. Because of this, there were more one-on-one battles and clashes. But all this was very difficult to practice, because November and December are the months when the training process is a little bit crunched because of the quality of the fields and the weather. But you can see the baseline on which his training process is based. And the work in the gym - not that it's new, but a little bit different than we've had before.
"Next season we will definitely have no European Cup".
- At the end of 2023, you expressed the opinion that Russian clubs will not soon return to the European Cup. Do you feel the same since then?
- You have to look at the geopolitical situation in the world in general. It is changing. And, probably, there will be something like a domino effect, when something changes up there, on the scale of the whole planet, and we will be back. But, I think, next season we will definitely be without European cups. And then there may be nuances.
- So we will return not before the summer of 2026?
- Definitely not before. I think we will be back somewhere in the summer of 2027, if what is happening ends. At least there are rumors about it now. I suppose it will lead to some decisions in the soccer world. I would like to see Russia back on the European stage. I think it will change a lot of things inside our championship, inside the formation of teams, inside the thoughts of club managers and coaches and so on, because now we live in a slightly different world compared to 2021-2022.
- Perhaps the most high-profile event at the end of last year in Russian soccer was a series of harsh statements by Samara Region Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev about the problems of agents and refereeing in Russian soccer, a phrase about how one of Krylia Sovetov's employees asked him for 36 million rubles for some intermediaries influencing refereeing. How did you react to that?
- Well, I said something... It's been two months. And I understand it didn't go any further. At least nobody's said anything to us about it. And no one is speaking out about it, so either something has been decided or it's just the way it is. I don't have an opinion about it.
- But have you ever come across such refereeing that there was a feeling of some kind of conspiracy and similar relationships between clubs and their corps that Fedorishchev talked about?
- I think conspiracy is, first of all, difficult. And secondly, it might be too visible. I think it's all about unintentional human error. Judges are human. They can make mistakes just like players. You just have to recognize it. That's all it is.
