As expected, Zenit has started the new season powerfully — continuous defeats and a cosmic gap in the quality of play from competitors. The main headliner of the St. Petersburg team right now is Maxim Glushenkov, who is breaking all scoring records. What can stop the restless midfielder, who is credited with a conflict with Valery Karpin?
It is no secret that Glushenkov has both great talent and a big ego. And this can hardly be considered a disadvantage: healthy egoism, vanity inherent in any ambitious person, and enormous diligence helped him get through a difficult stage in Moscow's Spartak, show himself in Samara's Krylia Sovetov and, via the capital's Lokomotiv, end up in the best club in the country. Maxim deserved all this, and now is his minute (and maybe even season) of glory.
The midfielder received a lot of hate for his move to Zenit. Lokomotiv fans were upset that they had to part with their best assistant of last season so easily and so cheaply (according to sources, the transfer amounted to about six million euros), and some fans, in a fit of emotion, did not spare words of criticism for their former favorite. They were joined by other football fans who cannot stand the St. Petersburg club and harshly criticize every Russian who moves to St. Petersburg to «kill their career.» In a short video published by his girlfriend, Glushenkov succinctly expressed his attitude to such critics, calling them clowns. Well, Maxim will definitely not play with the public — if everyone doesn't like him right away, there is no point in winning their favor any further. It is better to stick to his guns.
And he bends, and how. Six goals in three opening rounds of the RPL, three of them — in the goal of Rostov Valery Karpin. In front of the head coach of the Russian national team, the midfielder simply humiliated his club and effectively deprived the specialist of a choice before the autumn training camp of the national team. Calling up Glushenkov to the national team — it seems there is no more logical step, because Maxim is the best Russian player right now. If Karpin ignores the leader of Zenit, then this will give even more reasons to talk about the alleged conflict with the footballer.
Valery Georgievich is also a person with a difficult, even quite difficult character, but he has proven that this does not interfere with his work. Many admit that the microclimate in the national team is very good, the youth are as comfortable as possible with a coach devoid of any stereotypes. However, this does not change the fact that Karpin has his own vision of this or that player, and it is pointless to talk about the high demands of the specialist once again. Glushenkov made his debut in the national team just under Karpin, in the fall of 2022, but over the years he has not become a key figure in his formations. Moreover, in March of this year, Karpin did not call Maxim to a friendly match against the Serbs, citing that he «needs to improve» and «run more.» And this is while Glushenkov was methodically scoring points for Lokomotiv and generally dragging the railroad workers to the top.
The midfielder did not remain silent and in an interview with the YouTube channel «Comment.Show» he spoke about the coach's words: «Does Karpin mean working without the ball? Well, yes, but without the ball — what does it mean? Do I have to run 20 km per game? I can go out, score two goals, and we will win. And run 3 km there. Well, they didn't call me up to the national team and they didn't call me up, what's wrong with that? This is his (Karpin's) opinion, his decision. I am calm about this and the coach's words too.» After this, Glushenkov was included in the extended list for the June match against the Belarusians, but did not go to the game due to an injury. Which did not cool down the talk about the conflict between the coach and the player.
The performance in the match against Rostov is Glushenkov's bid not only for the title of the best player of the RPL, but also an ultimatum to Karpin: call him up to the national team or you will lose. And not only in the game, but also in the media. But Glushenkov will have to keep up the pace to further strengthen his position.