In “Torpedo” bet on resignations – Newspaper Kommersant No. 150 (7351) dated 08/18/2022

Moscow “Torpedo”, which returned to the Premier League after a long wandering in the lower divisions, but failed the starting segment of the season, decided to part with head coach Alexander Borodyuk. In addition, club president Denis Maslov and sports director Maxim Lyapin lost their posts. Borodyuk’s assistant Andrei Karyaka will prepare the team for the next match of the Russian Championship against Zenit, but, apparently, another specialist will soon lead it. And the director of strategic development Ilya Gerkus will take over the management of the club.

In the Russian Premier League (RPL) there was another, already the third coaching resignation. According to the publication “Sport-Express”, Alexander Borodyuk’s departure from Torpedo is about to be officially announced. Moreover, his resignation, as they say, was brewing. This is Sergey Yuran for unknown reasons removed from Khimki after they scored seven points, and the dismissal of Borodyuk, as earlier Igor Shalimov from Ural is easily explained by the extremely unsuccessful start in the championship. Muscovites have suffered four defeats, have already conceded 12 goals with only three scored, and were only able to record a draw with Krylya Sovetov as an asset. As a result, now they are in 15th place, with a minimum of points, and the toughest matches with Zenit, Krasnodar, Rostov are ahead. In a word, the situation is critical, from which they usually try to get out with the help of radical decisions.

Despite the huge coaching baggage, including a long work in the Russian national team, Alexander Borodyuk’s club career, in which there were only three teams, including the Kazakh Kairat and the Austrian Horn, cannot be called successful. Only he seemed to have a chance to shine with Torpedo, he led the black-and-whites to victory in the first division, but making the transition to a higher level turned out to be much more difficult.

And all right, the whole problem would be the points lost at the start of the championship, Borodyuk’s team did not reach the Premier League in terms of the game – and this is almost the unanimous opinion of experts.

It seems that the club misjudged the capabilities of the squad, which won a ticket to the strongest class. For example, the best player of the National Football League (FNL) Muhammad Sultonov, who scored 15 goals and gave 12 assists last season, was frankly confused in the RPL. The same can be said about Torpedo’s second scorer in the FNL, Amur Kalmykov, and David Karaev, who was taken from SKA-Khabarovsk to strengthen the attack, scored one goal so far. Torpedo’s “grandfathers” – 35-year-old Alexander Ryazantsev and 39-year-old Igor Lebedenko – are no longer pulling at the level of the Premier League. And even the invitation of two experienced defenders, participants in the 2018 World Cup, Ilya Kutepov and Igor Smolnikov, did not help Borodyuk. The same Kutepov in his first match with Orenburg got a red card, and the only goal came from under him. On top of that, the main goalkeeper Vitaliy Botnari was injured in this meeting and, apparently, was out of action for a long time.

Of course, not only the head coach is responsible for the failure. The recruitment of the squad is the responsibility of the sports director, and Maxim Lyapin, who holds this post at Torpedo, clearly did not cope with them. Again, what was good for the FNL, for the RPL is often, as they say, death. It is not surprising that, according to the same sources that reported Borodyuk’s resignation, director Lyapin left the club along with the head coach. The disastrous start of the season cost even the president of Torpedo, Denis Maslov, who received it in June 2020. His track record also includes work as the general director of Krylia Sovetov, the executive director of Nizhny Novgorod and Amkar, and the Perm club actually ceased to exist under him for financial reasons, and now, after re-registration, it plays in the second division. At the end of the last season, Maslov was recognized as the best manager of the FNL, and in general, he was also involved not only in administration, but also in the sports direction. So the blame for the failures in the Premier League was placed on him.

Now Ilya Gerkus will have to correct the situation, who recently came to Torpedo to the position of director of strategic development. And such a decision of the club’s board of directors also suggested itself, given that he had already shown his managerial skills, being the president of Lokomotiv from the summer of 2016 to 2018, when the railway workers won the Cup, and then the Russian championship. Herkus is likely to be the new president of Torpedo.

Appointments are coming in the coaching staff. Alexander Kerzhakov, Igor Cherevchenko and Sergei Yuran are considered the most likely candidates for the vacated post after Borodyuk’s resignation. However, the first has little experience – for the season in “Tom” and “Nizhny Novgorod”. The second contender has Lokomotiv roots, which can definitely play a role, and in recent years he headed the Tula Arsenal and Khimki. Well, Yuran has already changed more than a dozen clubs, never staying anywhere for a long time, but he started this championship great with the Khimki team and, apparently, is in the optimal coaching tone.

Alexander Ilyin