“A new challenge. Further along with Rubin
Former coach of Moscow CSKA and the Russian national football team Leonid Slutsky will again work at home. A well-known specialist signed a five-year contract with Kazan Rubin and returned to Russia three and a half years after leaving the army club. During this time, he managed to work in the English “Hull City” and the Dutch “Vitesse”, from where he was fired at the end of November.
In turn, Rubin immediately after the departure of Roman Sharonov in his Twitter account hinted at the personality of the next head coach. The club posted an image of a rocking chair - it was Slutsky who was strongly associated with the fans because of the habit of swinging on the coaching bench during matches. And literally an hour before the official announcement of the arrival of a specialist on the club’s Twitter, a new post appeared: Slutsky was already sitting in a swinging chair. After that, everything became completely clear.
🔜 pic.twitter.com/mwB33q0qzG
- Rubin Kazan (@fcrk) December 19, 2019The trainer himself posted on his Instagram page a photo from the signing of the contract and the signature “New challenge. Further along with the Ruby.
View this Instagram post
A new challenge. Further along with Rubin (Kazan) 🤝
Posted by Leonid Slutsky 🇷🇺 (@ leonid.slutsky) Dec 19, 2019 at 6:45 am PST
And before settling the last formalities, the specialist walked around the club base and was pleased with it.
“It’s quite modern, despite the fact that it was built in 2004. It is functional, there is absolutely everything: the methodical building, the residential, and the training, and related to the restoration and strength work, high quality fields. That is, Rubin has the entire infrastructure of the highest level, ”the club’s official website quotes the coach.
Slutsky’s place in Rubin was vacated after Sharonov’s resignation, adopted by mutual agreement. Together with the young specialist, his coaching staff left the team with the exception of Oleg Kuzmin, goalkeeper coach Sergei Kozko and physical training coach Javier Noi Salses. All three will continue to work in a team with Slutsky. But the arrival of the Berezutsky brothers in Kazan has not yet been reported.
“The tasks of Leonid Viktorovich at the moment are to try to win in every match and show the result. Nothing unusual. We will evaluate his work already next season, ”the Championship quotes the club’s director general Rustem Saimanov.
And the sports director of Rubin, as expected, was the long-term ally of Slutsky Oleg Yarovinsky.
“I am familiar with Oleg Yarovinsky firsthand, he is a specialist of a very high level. We managed to get ourselves a great sports director. His area of responsibility will include a purely sports component, starting from the academy. He will be at the head of our sports pyramid, ”added Saimanov.
The new coaching staff has to solve an extremely difficult task - to save Rubin from relegation from the RPL. Although Kazan started the season very well. Under the leadership of Sharonov, who replaced the eminent Kurban Berdyev in the summer, the young team scored seven points in three starting rounds and climbed to third place in the standings. But in the next 16 matches of the national championship, Rubin won only two victories, the last of which was dated October 5. At the same time, the team flew out of the Russian Cup, losing with a score of 0: 3 to Khimki near Moscow.
According to the results of the first part of the season, Rubin dropped to 13th place in the RPL standings and ended up in the zone of butt matches. The team scored only 19 points in 19 rounds and is only four points ahead of Sochi, which occupies the last position. Kazan scored only 11 goals - in the Russian championship this is the worst indicator among all the teams. At the same time, Rubin has the best performance on conceded goals among the teams in the lower half of the standings.
Cloud-free prospects and work with former wards
The arrival of a former CSKA mentor in Kazan was also previously reported by several sources close to the club. According to Business Online, the proposals to Slutsky from Rubin were received back in November, but then the specialist did not accept them.
The arrival of Slutsky to Rubin indirectly confirmed that Kuzmin and Kozko did not leave the club after Sharon. Both of them in the past played under the leadership of Slutsky in Uralan and Moscow even before the head coach made a name for himself in CSKA. Heading the national team, Slutsky also invited Kuzmin to the national team.
Slutsky will be tasked with building a new team, which in 2021 will be able to break into European competition, and before that, be saved from relegation to the FNL. By that time, the ban on participation in European competitions will be lifted from the team. As for finances, in the near future the club should feel calm thanks to the debts paid by the sponsor and his desire to pay for transfers at the direction of Slutsky.
The mentor himself, after a voluntary resignation from Vitesse, which was preceded by five consecutive defeats in the Dutch championship, said that he was ready to head the RPL club. At the same time, he made a reservation that he wants to join a stable team, with whose leadership it will be possible to immediately establish relations.
“An unemployed trainer immediately thinks of the bad: that's it, you won’t be called anywhere. Now the most important thing in work is a feeling of inner comfort. It is important that the relationship with the owners is good. All the biggest problems come from within. Each person within the team believes that the result depends only on him. And that is wonderful. But if the result is negative, they all think that the head coach is to blame - they forge the result correctly. If chemistry works out with the management, then I can at least tomorrow say “yes” to the new club. In this case, the specific country is not important. The main thing: the seriousness, duration and ambitiousness of the project, ”said Slutsky in the Insiders program.
Earlier, the coach refused to head the Greek AEK, which eventually invited another specialist known to Russian fans Massimo Carrera, who led to the gold medals of the Spartak national championship. Earlier in the media, there were also rumors about the possible appearance of Slutsky on the bench in Dynamo, Lokomotiv and Monaco.