Mikhail Osinov «Such a story really took place, I confirm. He turned to us, told us about the situation, all the players, including me as a captain, replied that they would not give up the game. As a result, we played 1: 1, if I'm not mistaken. So my my conscience is clear. In general, it is difficult for me to characterize him as a specialist, since he worked only a couple of matches with the team. But it was evident that he had a European approach. For example, the pre-match setting was not on the day of the match, but on the eve, so everyone understood in advance who will take the field tomorrow.An interesting coach, I liked working with him, the relationship was good.And, as you can see from the history of the match against Rubin, he is also principled, which is very important.Of course, we were surprised that an Englishman appeared in the club , some exotic. But the players still do not influence such decisions, «said Osinov. A week later, Ashworth led the team in a meeting with Amkar, and the next day the parties terminated the contract by mutual agreement. It is difficult to say what affected more — unsatisfactory results or refusal to surrender the match. Nevertheless, the Englishman was very proud that he became the first representative of his country in the Russian Championship and one of the youngest coaches. At that time, he had not even exchanged his forties. He was held hostage in Nigeria. The most exotic place of work in Ashworth's career was not Russia or even Latvia, where he later returned. In 2009, he received an offer to head one of the leading academies in Nigeria — in the state of Kwara. The task of the specialist was to select the most talented players from all over the country, starting from the age of 13. He was impressed by the local geeks, noted that in many respects they are superior to their peers from Foggy Albion. In total, the Briton worked in Nigeria for four years.
English football functionary Paul Ashworth Later and here Ashworth tried himself as a coach, heading the Sunshine Stars club, but he described this experience as «strange». In particular, the Englishman told how, during training, he and his team were taken hostage by fifty young people armed with sticks and bats. It turned out that the local authorities had debts to them, and in this way they tried to attract their attention. The players, along with Ashworth, spent several hours in such an unpleasant situation until the police and officials settled the conflict. «This man is a swindler» As a result, the Briton accumulated a solid track record, which included work not only in different countries, but also on different continents . When he came to Astana in 2019, it seemed that the club signed a top specialist who would keep him in the lead in the Kazakhstan championship. But in fact, that period of a year and a half showed that Ashworth has a lot of skeletons in his closet, and it’s even strange that Spartak’s management doesn’t take them into account. It should be noted that the Englishman has long been engaged in the agency business, being one of the founders of the Global Sport Invest office . Astana had a partnership with her and at the same time appointed one of her top managers to the position of executive director, which already looks doubtful. One of the founders of the agency is Yevgeny Kultaev, who was the right hand of the former head of «Astana» Sayan Khamitzhanov and was responsible for the selection at the club. He is also well acquainted with the well-known Marco Trabucchi, who had a lot of dealings with one of the leading teams in Kazakhstan.Marco TrabucchiAt the same time, Astana was not the only partner of Global Sport Invest. A whole syndicate of clubs from the post-Soviet (and not only) space was formed around the agency, as detailed by the Belarusian edition by.tribuna.com. Colleagues found out that the office had similar relations with Shakhtar Soligorsk, Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodzina, Proleter Serbian, Spartak Jurmala. There were many transfers between these clubs, which, it is worth believing, brought a lot of dividends to the agents. So, under Ashworth, Astana was extremely active in the market and allowed the Briton to earn solid money. In addition, the Englishman was so dispersed in this regard that in May 2021, after his departure, law enforcement agencies became interested in the activities of the functionary. Two transfers aroused the greatest interest in the police — the Bosnian Marin Anicic and the Cypriot Pieros Sotiriu. The former re-signed with Astana under Ashworth and included a commission clause for him if he was sold overseas. Anichich eventually left for Turkey, and the Briton received more than 63 million tenge or almost 8 million rubles from the club he worked for. After parting with «Astana», a contract for the provision of services for a fee was signed with the functionary, so he continued cooperation. Ashworth helped put Sotiriu in Ludogorets, and then demanded from the Kazakh club 10 percent of the 700 thousand euros that were received for the transfer. He was refused, after which he even sued his former employers.
Game moment in the match «Ludogorets» — «Roma» Apparently, the Englishman was not alone in all these dark affairs. The Nur-Sultan police found out that acting president of the club Yerbol Tulebaev lobbied for an increase in Ashworth's salary — from 3 thousand euros to 10, some time after appearing at the club. At the same time, the Briton combined several positions at once — general and sports directors, and at one time he was also the head coach of the team. As a result, Ashworth was charged with abuse of power. Later it became known that the anti-corruption service also began a pre-service check against the Englishman and a number of other officials on suspicion of embezzling about 370 million tenge in the period from 2018 to 2021. The result of these proceedings is not yet available. But Ashworth in Kazakhstan has developed a strong reputation not as a strong functionary and intelligent football specialist, but rather as a money-hungry rogue. This is how Vladimir Zharkov, a journalist from prosports.kz, described him in a conversation with. in «Spartak». We saw in practice how he brings players to the club and has a percentage of this. He did not stop working in the agency with the transition to work in Astana. We must give him his due — some of the players by our standards were very good and suited the team. But Ashworth was getting big commissions and ended up getting into payroll debts, which resulted in the club getting a multi-stop transfer ban. On various deals, they saw it really well. So at first I thought that the news about “Spartak” is just someone’s joke,” said Zharkov. So, is it still an honest professional or a rogue? technical director, and more recently moved to Newcastle. It is interesting that the “gulls” Paul was not a sports director, not the head of the academy or a coach, but a video analyst. His job was to oversee players for Graham Potter, who recently took over from Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea. It is difficult to talk about the success of the Englishman in his homeland — he has been in office for only six months and has been out of work since February.
Chelsea head coach Graham Potter «I do not exclude that at first Ashworth will really bring quality legionnaires to Spartak. For example, from the same Africa where he himself once worked. This will help to get high-quality press at first. But with this he will wind up his own and do the same as in «Astana», only on a much larger scale. «Spartak» is, after all, a bottomless barrel compared to Kazakhstan. For me, this is the real «gazizism». I don’t know what «The goal is pursued by the leadership of such an invitation. They cannot but know about Ashworth's reputation and agency activities. And think for yourself — which of the British in the current situation will come to work in Russia?» — said Zharkov. On the other hand, in Russia only positive memories remained about the Briton. For example, in a conversation with him, Gennady Stepushkin spoke very warmly, whom Ashworth once replaced as the head coach of Rostov. The specialist is confident in the honesty of his former colleague and said that he is suitable for Spartak. Russian Premier League (RPL) September 18, 2022 • kick off at 19:00 The match has not started
Spartak MoscowRussia– : –
LokomotivRussia «A decent guy and a true professional who is deeply versed in football. Honest, he will never say anything behind his back — only in his eyes. We had good contact, excellent relations. I could ask him for advice on certain issues in coaching «, but he himself never got involved in the work of the headquarters. Very tactful. Including, on my recommendation, he was entrusted with the team when I was treated. In addition, he is perfectly adapted to Russia — he knows the language, loves our cuisine, his wife is Latvian, how much «I remember. If he does get an appointment to Spartak, I can only wish him good luck. Unfortunately, we haven't kept in touch for a long time, so if possible, say hello to him,» Stepushkin said. Therefore, the new appointment in the leadership » Spartak» should be expected with restrained optimism. It seems that an experienced specialist comes to the club, who is well versed in youth and adapted to local realities. At the same time, the train of scandals from Kazakhstan makes it difficult to see in him a functionary who will take the team to a new level. In any case, each of his transfers will now be considered under a microscope — did he enrich the sports director by a couple of tens of thousands of euros?
