What people are on board!

In one day, both finalists of the previous Gagarin Cup were left without head coaches

The champion of the country "Salavat Yulaev" refused to trust the "golden" coach of the 2008 model, Sergei Mikhalev, and the Moscow region "Atlant" sent home the only coach in the world, on account of which the golden double-2006 (Olympics and World Championships) - the Swede Bengt- Oke Gustafsson

Of course, they did not agree - but both finalists of the last Gagarin Cup fired their head coaches with a difference of several hours. The champion of the country "Salavat Yulaev" refused to trust the "golden" coach of the 2008 model (and one of the most titled Russian specialists) Sergey Mikhalev, and the Moscow region "Atlant" decided to send home the only coach in the world, on whose account the golden double -2006 (Olympics and World Championship) - Swede Bengt-Oke Gustafsson.

Well done, don't say anything. Of course, "Magnitogorsk" and "Barys" found the extreme (Alexander Barkov and Andrey Khomutov) even faster, but here is still a slightly different case. Or rather, cases, because they are very different.

Due!

... Sergei Mikhailovich Mikhalev had been in limbo for about a month. The champion played frankly badly, every now and then prominences of scandals burst out of the club (the loudest was with the main star of Salavat, Alexander Radulov, who did not want to play under Mikhalev), and the management waited. At the most tense moment, the club's board gave such an instruction, which was not often met even in the deaf Soviet times: "Improve the quality of the game and improve the tournament position in a short time." Naturally, nothing good came of this, although Radulov stopped the silent strike, and the team honestly tried to rectify the situation and pulled out hopelessly lost matches a couple of times.

It's not even that the current champion of the country missed more than anyone else in the Continental Hockey League and fell lower and lower, right up to leaving the playoff zone - it was not clear due to which Salavat would return, if not the previous game, but at least former confidence. Sergei Mikhalev together with Sergei Gersonsky changed the composition of the units, tried to establish game discipline, called for more work - all to no avail. Hockey players admitted that they did not understand the reasons for the protracted crisis, the state of affairs in the team had long been discussed at the level of the leadership of Bashkortostan, until finally the coaches and leading players were called “on the carpet” to the president. Everything said at this meeting by the president of Bashkortostan Rustem Khamitov, as well as the mayor of Ufa and the president of the club Pavel Kachkaev, had to be read between the lines. Including the fact that “each star needs a special approach” and “as long as we don’t have a team, there are only individuals ...”. The main personality in the face of Alexander Radulov also spoke out: "We are to blame."

Three days after the tortured victory over the league outsider Avtomobilist, it turned out that the head coach and his right hand, Sergei Gersonsky, were still to blame. The fact that the authorities of Bashkortostan themselves put Mikhalev in such a position, no one, of course, admitted.

Everything is quite simple. They forgot to inform the gray-haired old fox that he was accepting a team with which they had not paid off for the last championship year, and which for some time had become a bone of contention between the old and new authorities in the republic. The fact is that Salavat is financed by the Ural Charitable Foundation, which is headed by the former president of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov.
This same fund, powered by the fuel and energy complex of Bashkiria, invested huge amounts of money in the hockey club, which largely ensured the maintenance of the star coaching duet Vyacheslav Bykov-Igor Zakharkin, the acquisition of very expensive players and, of course, the championship. Nevertheless, the new president got the laurels, and in the spring of this year, immediately after receiving the gold medals, a showdown with Ural began, directly related to Salavat. After several checks, a message appeared that the fund would continue to finance the club, but a hint of cost reduction was received more than transparent - after the club left the former coaching staff, they invited the "budget" Mikhalev.

The fact that the gentlemen are fighting, and it is he who will crack his forehead, Sergey Mikhailovich understood pretty soon. Because during the showdown at the highest level, the parties also “forgot” to pay the promised bonuses to the hockey players, leaving the new chief with complete freedom of action in conditions that are little compatible with creative ones. It's not that the team didn't want to play - they didn't want to play at full strength, only occasionally demonstrating what they are really capable of. If Mikhalev had been given the whole alignment in advance, he would have thought a hundred times before accepting how tempting, just as risky an offer.

He thought that he would accept a well-functioning economy with small losses in the composition (and Mikhalev, with his experience, would work calmly and without hassle), but he got at his disposal a very dissatisfied team that had to be forced to play and train as it should champions. Of course, everything was not limited to financial problems, but one thing began to overlap with another, and at the end the fans got what they got. “There is no death without a cause,” Sergei Mikhailovich said in parting.

It was possible, of course, to finish the game before the break in the championship (the first stage of the Eurotour starts this week - the Karjala Cup), but Ufa did not want to wait any longer. For the time being, Vener Safin, who has been working at Salavat's headquarters for ten years under any head coaches, took the reins of government, but it is not he who, most likely, will be destined to lead the team out of the crisis.

Rope's patience snapped

A couple of hours later, news came from Mytishchi that Atlant had received another specialist from Janne Karlsson's assistants.

... I like Atlant and its arena since the Moscow World Cup. The people there are creative, the team is playful, cheerful, with potential. Last year, this potential was almost brought to the ideal state by the furious Czech Milos Rzhiga, who, after the end of the silver season, was urgently intercepted by the all-powerful and hungry monster in the face of St. Petersburg SKA. Atlant was left with the general director Andrei Verevka and the third part of the team, which lost almost all the leaders (including the scorer Sergei Mozyakin, a landmark for the club and all Russian hockey).

Verevka, however, did not lose heart, launched a stormy activity, and in addition to the first Swedish coach (and what - perhaps the most famous, champion of champions!) He lured to Mytishchi from across the ocean, albeit a fading, but still megastar in the person of Alexei Kovalev , as well as an unrealized star in the person of Nikolai Zherdev. A lot of promises were made, almost more was said and written about Atlant than about St. Petersburg SKA, while everyone missed a little remark by Boris Mayorov that such a thorough Swede as Bengt-Oke Gustafsson, and even when building a new team , the takeoff needs a long one.

And now Bengt-Oke, about whom the CEO said that they quickly understood each other and that he was exactly the coach that Atlant needed, was expelled from the team less than two months after the start of the championship. If Andrei Verevka hoped that his "Atlant" would tear everyone no worse than under Rzhiga, and tear them beautifully, then he is either an amateur or a projector. Yes, Gustafsson worked hard and creakingly, the team scored little and was far from the previous sparkling game. But the Swede did not promise that Atlant would effortlessly eliminate all rivals. The Swedish school is solid, it has its own specifics, which must either be accepted or not accepted. Verevka preferred not to delve into the subtleties and stop cooperation as soon as possible. At the same time, he expressed regret that it was hard for him to part. One might think that Gustafsson, who did not fail to remark that the resignation was "hasty", was easy.

Andrey Verevka took up the post of general director relatively recently and, most likely, he was struck by the cider of his first success. This is what happens in modern times, when people “from nowhere” come to hockey, and sometimes they start to succeed. But Andrei Verevka, alas, did not understand what happened not with him, but with Milos Rzhiga in the first place. And that the professionalism of a general director or general manager is not manifested in situations of unexpected triumph, but quite the opposite.

Last season, the new Moscow Dynamo (read HC MVD, disbanded after a stunning silver success) lost 11 games in a row in winter. During this monstrous streak, head coach Oleg Znarok and his assistant Haris Vitolinsh could have been fired more than once. But to the credit of President Mikhail Tyurkin and General Director Andrey Safronov (who is not a gift at all), they were not hockey people, they defended the coaches, because they understood: if they had to leave, then everyone, which would mean the end of the new Dynamo.
But this is a very rare case. So far, mostly presidents and general managers are firing coaches. So it's more familiar.