There are plenty of scandals in Russian football, which is only worth the Sunday derby between Spartak and CSKA. However, in this matter near Moscow, “Khimki” in the lead. No other club this season has caused so much ridicule, and the reason for this is the controversial decisions of the leadership, which led the club to relegation from the Russian Premier League (RPL).
Sudden resignation of Yuran
In fact, Khimki was supposed to fly out of the RPL a year ago. In the first half of the 2021/22 season, the team changed coaches twice, with Igor Cherevchenko being first fired and then re-appointed head coach. By the winter break, the Moscow Region club was in last place in the table — it seemed that another change of coach right before the start of the championship would bury the club. But under the leadership of Sergey Yuran, Khimki had a great spring season, scoring 18 points in 12 games, returned to the play-off zone and beat Khabarovsk SKA after two meetings. The team also started the new season very well:
- successful draw with Zenit in the first round;
- two confident victories over Nizhny Novgorod and Torpedo;
- defeat with a minimum score in the away match with Rostov.
Seven points in four rounds and a place in the first half of the table is an excellent result for a team that fought for survival two months ago.
< br>
But then Yuran was suddenly fired. No clear reasons were given, which gave rise to a wave of various rumors. The version about the conflict between the specialist and the club's investor Tufan Sadygov looked the most plausible: the coach in the match against Rostov did not let his son Ilya Sadygov on the field — many considered this the reason for his resignation.
The horrors of Pisarev and Gognieva
Juran was replaced by Nikolai Pisarev. The choice seemed strange: Pisarev had very little experience as a head coach, and in the RPL he had previously worked only as an assistant. All the more surprising was the contract for a year and a half at once. Which, however, had to be broken after three weeks: four defeats in four matches with a total score of 2:12 showed the fallacy of this appointment.The next candidate raised fewer questions. Spartak Gogniev has been a head coach for a long time: he headed Alania for several seasons, proved himself on a good side and deserved a chance to try himself in the RPL. But he took advantage of this chance worse than ever. Gogniev tried to put the team football combination, but “Khimki” looked terrible. The players made childish mistakes, “floated” under pressure, and after the goals conceded, the team finally fell apart. As a result, in 19 matches under the leadership of Gogniev, the Moscow Region club lost four times with a difference of five or more goals. The coach freaked out, swore at the players and referees, even earned a disqualification for being sent off in a match with Dynamo. But in that match, the aforementioned Sadigov scored a goal from the penalty spot — Gogniev's emotional celebration on the podium (the score became 6:1 in favor of Dynamo) caused a flurry of ridicule in social networks.
br>The horrendous result led to rumors about a change of coach — already in October they talked about returning to the club … Sergey Yuran! Such a move would have been received with enthusiasm by the public, but Gogniev was given carte blanche to prepare the team for spring, and he successfully failed it: he almost got into a fight with the players at the training camp, removed several veterans from training and assembled a completely new team. Which, however, played as badly as the previous one — after 0:6 from Krasnodar, Gogniyev was nevertheless dismissed.
Talalaev. Too late…
At the end of the championship, “Khimki” made a choice in favor of Andrey Talalaev. But before his appointment, the team managed to play one match under the leadership of Rinat Bilyaletdinov, failing again. Irakli Chezhia and the same Sadygov appeared in the starting lineup of Khimki in a meeting with CSKA, and Dzhambulat Dulaev came on as a substitute. All these players spent most of their careers in the second league, and for the army this game was one of the easiest of the season. deeply bogged down in a swamp due to a series of stupid decisions that the arrival of Talalaev could no longer change anything. Yes, he managed to shake up the team, in a short time put some semblance of a game and even score points (a victory over Torpedo plus a draw with Spartak). But this was not enough to fight for survival. Competitors rushed forward, and after the 28th round, Khimki had no chance of salvation. sentenced himself to a demotion in class. It is symbolic that the departure of “Khimki” issued “Nizhny Novgorod”, which is now headed by Juran. The one from which the red-black insanity began. Now the club says that it trusts Talalaev, but a year ago the same words were addressed to Yuran. And if the madness continues, “Khimki” will not linger even in the First League, continuing to free fall. editors.