During the New Year holidays, the management of the Rostov football club announced the completion of the search for a new head coach of the team. According to the FC press service, the club's expert council appointed Gennady Stepushkin, who previously worked with the backup team, to this position. According to observers, with this appointment, the team management began to implement a new strategy aimed at creating a “donor club” that would develop players not only for its own needs, but also for other teams in Russia and abroad. Gennady Stepushkin played as a player for Rostselmash (Rostov-on-Don), SKA (Rostov-on-Don), Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk), Chernomorets (Novorossiysk), Maccabi (Yavne, Israel), "Arminia" (Bielefeld, Germany) and others, as part of the Korean "Ilva" won the Asian Champions Cup. For the Rostov club, Gennady Stepushkin played 235 matches and scored 24 goals. In 2000, he completed his playing career, after which he entered the higher school of coaches. After graduating from VShT, Stepushkin began working at the club as an assistant head coach, and he was the only one who was part of the team’s headquarters with all the mentors who regularly changed during this time (Sergei Balakhnin, Anatoly Baidachny, Vitaly Shevchenko). In May 2004, he was appointed coach of the team's reserve team. Under his leadership, the double took 9th place, scoring 11 wins, 8 draws and 11 defeats.

As Kommersant was informed by the press service of FC Rostov, a few days before the New Year, Rostov head coach Sergei Balakhnin and reserve coach Gennady Stepushkin were asked to present their concepts for the development of the club to the Rostov expert council. This advisory body brings together representatives of shareholders, as well as football veterans. As a result, the council gave preference to the program of Gennady Stepushkin.

Commenting on this decision, Rostov president Ivan Savvidi said that in the winning concept he liked the idea of establishing strict discipline in the team. Gennady Stepushkin himself said that the main essence of the program he presented was “to trust the young people more, to make Rostov’s game more aggressive, aimed at the goal.” According to him, this concept was partly realized last year with the double team.

He promised that young players who worked in the reserve team will now be brought into the main team. Some of them have already gone to the UAE for training camp. According to the club's press service, goalkeepers Mikhail Savchenko and Alexander Shorin, defenders Tony Coyle, Anton Rogochiy, Carlos Gutierrez, Nikolai Shirshov, Sergei Bendz, Milos Kruscic, Sergei Datsenko, Igor Chernyshov and Bertrand Ngapunu, midfielders Mikhail Osinov, Ilya went to Dubai Kalashnikov, Japhet Zwane, Gift Kampamba, Andrey Bochkov, Maxim Burchenko, Georgiy Aslanidi, Alexander Dantsev and Timofey Kalachev, forwards - Omar Perez, Iso Kanenda, Dmitry Burmistrov, Viktor Shkurat and Alexander Alkhazov.

Currently, the team has three players on trial: Rotor Volgograd defender Nikolai Olenikov, Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Timofey Kalachev and Belgian Charleroi and Sierra Leone national team defender Mustafa Sama. It is expected that several more players will come to the Emirates. Among them will be goalkeepers who should replace the main goalkeepers of “Rostov” - Alexander Kolinko and Ilya Bliznyuk.

In the club's management's focus on the coach and players of the reserve squad, observers see the beginning of the implementation of a new strategy aimed at creating a “donor club” that would develop players not only for its own needs, but also for other teams in Russia and abroad. For the first time, FC President Ivan Savvidi announced this in September last year: “The time has come when our kids are ready to perform in the first team. All the money spent on their maintenance was spent for one purpose - to carry out selection work at the expense of their own players. We need to break this mentality of trusting only foreigners. There must be high-level footballers, but there should not be a strong preponderance towards foreigners,” Ivan Savvidi said then.

The new strategy indicates that the management of Rostov has abandoned its ambitions to bring the Rostov club to the leaders of the Russian championship in the shortest possible time. After his appointment, this was confirmed by the new head coach of the team, Gennady Stepushkin, who said that his goal for the season was “to fight for the Russian Cup and take a worthy place in the championship.” Before this, Ivan Savvidi set the head coaches and players the task of entering the top three winners of the Russian championship and winning the Russian Football Cup.

ALEXEY PAVLOVSKY Kuban changed management At the end of 2004, a meeting of shareholders of FC Kuban was held. It accepted the resignation of the club's general director, Alexander Moldovanov. By decision of the shareholders, Maxim Remchukov, representing the interests of businessman Oleg Deripaska, was appointed to this post. Previously, at the Krasnodar club, he was responsible for financial and legal issues with the rank of vice president. The question of the head coach remains open.
On January 5, the first meeting of Kuban football players this year was held, at which the task set for the team by the club’s shareholders was announced: “Kuban” must return to the Premier League this season, laying the foundation for a worthy performance in the strongest Russian division.

Kommersant (Rostov) No. 1 from 01/11/2005, p. 12

"Rostov" will aim at the goal