Translated material
Temporarily responsible
They expect quick results from Vladimir Vuitek and Valery Postnikov
At the end of last week, two Super League clubs at the top of the standings found new head coaches. The most interesting thing is that both Vladimir Vuytek in Dynamo and Valery Postnikov in Metallurg Magnitogorsk are temporary figures. The first came before the end of the season, the second until they find another specialist.At Dynamo Moscow, head coach Vladimir Krikunov left a couple of weeks ago after a devastating defeat to Vityaz on home ice 1:8. He, however, asked for his resignation back in October, feeling that the team was not listening to him. There was no conflict in the team, the specialist simply could not convey what kind of hockey should be played. The reason for this is not the strongest selection of the squad, and outright failures on the part of some players.
Vladimir Krikunov left when Dynamo was in seventh place. The gap from fifth place (the official task set for the players by the club's management) was relatively small, but it did not decrease with each round. In addition, fans demanded his resignation, constantly chanting “go away” during matches. After Krikunov’s dismissal, club president Mikhail Golovkov immediately went on the defensive. “Anatoly Antipov has been appointed acting coach,” he said. - He calmly prepares the team for matches. We are not yet commenting on the question of whether we will look for a new specialist.”
Antipov won the last match before the break in the championship against Amur, and then went to the planned training camp in Latvia. “After the training camp, the owners immediately began calling agents asking them to find them a coach,” a source at the club shared. -- The team lost twice to the Latvian national team. First of all, I was confused by the score. In the first meeting it was 1:5, in the second – 3:7.”
But it was impossible to find the right person at the end of December, in the midst of the championships and before the World Youth Championships. In November, the famous Bob Hartley, retired from Atlanta, seemed to come, but everyone was confused by his financial claims. Even the highest paid coach receives ten times less in Russia.
“We found Vladimir Vuitek by chance,” explains a source at Dynamo. — Everyone, of course, knew about him, but they also remembered his words about ending his coaching career due to age and health. They turned to him for help, maybe he could recommend a coach. And Vuytek offered himself.” Vuytek is the second foreign coach to return to Russia this season. The first - Milos Rzhiga beat him by only two rounds, arriving at Spartak. But for Vladimir, “Dynamo” is already the third team in his Russian career (Rzhiga had only “Khimik”). The Czech coach twice became a champion with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and then did not finish the rest of the season at Ak Bars Kazan.
His Russian colleagues spoke ambiguously about Vuytek. It was believed that he did not create anything at Lokomotiv, and the team received legitimate dividends from the work of Pyotr Vorobyov. All the Czech's merits are that he didn't break anything. As soon as he came to the “raw” Ak Bars, problems immediately began. Indeed, Vorobyov left a strong club in Yaroslavl, but it is unlikely that a bad coach would have been able to keep the super league at bay for two years, even with good material. But in two seasons, Lokomotiv lost only one match in the playoffs. Moreover, Cherepovets Severstal in the final of the 2003 season was so happy about this event, as if it had won the tournament. Yaroslavl then calmly put the finishing touches on the opponent.
But in Kazan, Vuytek found himself in a strange environment. His problems began in the off-season; for every failure in friendly matches, the Czech was strictly reprimanded by local bosses, and when Zinetula Bilyaletdinov gave informal consent to move to Kazan, the fate of the Czech specialist was decided.
Vuytek came to Dynamo until the end of the season. By the new championship, the “blue and white” will find a specialist with whom they can sign a long-term contract. But Vladimir’s tasks remained from the previous coach - to win championship medals.
In Magnitogorsk, the dismissal of head coach Fedor Kanareikin was received ambiguously. Firstly, Kanareikin managed to perform a miracle last season. He took a team that was in 15th place and made it the best in the country. Secondly, in this championship the club occupies a quite comfortable third place. They would hardly have been first, but they could have easily competed for second place, which gives them home-court advantage during the playoffs right up to the final. Thirdly, the resignation happened on the eve of the European Cup, which will take place in early January in St. Petersburg, the main tournament for the team. Fourthly, Valery Postnikov, who had not worked in the Super League in recent years, took over as head coach.
This year Kanareikin did not find a common language with the club’s general director Gennady Velichkin. The coach demanded strengthening of the squad, but the manager did nothing to buy players. Formally, the head coach was fired by Vladimir Rashnikov, head of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. But everyone knows that he does not make such decisions alone, but always consults. First of all, with Velichkin.
Kanareikin was blamed for the lack of a beautiful game. “We are all in shock,” admitted one of the team players. - The coach told us that we were preparing for the European Champions Cup, that we would approach this tournament at the peak of our form. And when we felt that we were missing something in the games of the domestic tournament, Fedor Leonidovich reassured us: they say, this is normal, everything will be fine.”
What confuses me the most, of course, is the choice of a new coach. Valery Postnikov has not worked in recent years, occupying a not very responsible position in a children's school. By the way, in Magnitogorsk they pay him a substantial lifetime bonus for his contribution to the development of hockey. Most likely, Postnikov will work with the team only during the European Cup, and if everything goes well in St. Petersburg, then until the end of the season. Although the owners have already contacted the Czech coach Marek Sikora, inviting him to return to the team (Sikora worked in the Urals in 2003-2005). But now he is busy with the country’s youth team.