Leonid Slutsky
Leonid Slutsky was born into a Moscow nomenklatura family, so his prospects from the very beginning seemed rosy. Having entered the Moscow Machine Tool Institute, Leonid Slutsky took the position of Deputy Secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Institute, and in his final years Leonid Slutsky already worked in the apparatus of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
Slutsky’s father, Eduard Grigorievich, by that time had good connections in the Union Ministry of Finance, whose officials, anticipating the imminent collapse of the USSR, began to distribute “party money” among various commercial structures. Slutsky Sr. himself was related to Avtobank, to whose accounts 1 billion rubles were transferred. His son and a group of associates in the same years established the All-Union Association of New Economic Forms and Social Initiatives, which also received 60 million rubles from the same Ministry of Finance at 10%.
Leonid Slutsky
When Leonid Slutsky graduated from university, his party career was no longer relevant due to the collapse of the Union, but his patrons did not lose their positions at all, but rather, on the contrary, strengthened them. For some time, Leonid Slutsky waited in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs as an adviser, and then in the same capacity he found himself next to the new mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.
During these years, Leonid Slutsky could be seen on the lists of the Rodniki gardening partnership, which included high-ranking federal and Moscow officials, as well as representatives of the banking sector. It is noteworthy that the access roads to this partnership were repaired through the Ministry of Finance, using funds written off for “agricultural development.” And Vnesheconombank (VEB) provided the partnership with a ruble loan of one billion rubles for a period of three years at 20% per annum.
Leonid Slutsky
Negotiations with VEB were conducted by Leonid Slutsky himself, together with a certain Anatoly Guryashin, who later held a senior position in the economic department of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, and then was responsible in the capital government for preparing and holding the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow.
In the mid-1990s, Leonid Slutsky headed the secretariat of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who at that time was the deputy chairman of the State Duma. He was introduced to the LDPR party by banker Ashot Yeghiazaryan, whose father was a good friend of Slutsky’s father. Back in the early 1990s, Yeghiazaryan headed the Fund for Socio-Economic Development of the Moscow Region, one of the founders of which was the same Avtobank.
Childhood and youth of Leonid Slutsky. Injury
Leonid Viktorovich was born in May 1971 in one of the maternity hospitals in Volgograd. At the age of six, a misfortune happened in the family - his father, Victor, a master of sports in boxing, died. Little Lenya was raised by her mother, who worked in a kindergarten.
Leonid Slutsky with his parents
As a child, Leonid attended the Spartak football section and participated in local amateur performances. After school, from which he graduated with a gold medal, Slutsky entered the Institute of Physical Culture in his native city. The young man perfectly combined his studies with playing football, playing for the Zvezda (Gorodishche) youth team as a goalkeeper, and graduated from the university with honors.
Childhood photo of Leonid Slutsky
The young and promising player showed great promise. But his kindness and responsiveness played a cruel joke on him: one autumn evening, while helping to get his neighbor’s pet cat from a poplar tree, Leonid could not stay on the branch and fell to the ground from a decent height. Numerous fractures and a concussion put an end to the career of a promising football player. He spent a year in the hospital, trying in vain to rehabilitate himself.
In his youth, Leonid Slutsky was a goalkeeper
Leonid Slutsky banker
Soon, Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky left Zhirinovsky’s secretariat, as Yeghiazaryan received an offer to work in the Ukrainian banking sector market. At first, he was introduced to the board of directors of Prominvestbank, which was the successor to the Ukrainian branch of the Soviet Promstroybank and which received the accounts of almost all industrial enterprises in Ukraine. Then Leonid Slutsky took the position of deputy chairman of the board of another Ukrainian credit institution, Unikombank, co-owned by the same Yeghiazaryan.
Ashot Yeghiazaryan
Bonds of the internal state currency loan (OVVZ) of Ukraine were circulated through Unicombank. In particular, the representative of the Russian state on the board of directors of RAO Gazprom, Andrei Vavilov, was involved in this scheme. With his participation, Gazprom paid taxes using Ukrainian bonds. He also made efforts to ensure that these bonds were sold to Unicombank for only 10% of the nominal value.
Before Vavilov was fired from the civil service and he moved to the MFK bank, he managed to authorize this bank and Unicombank with his signature to provide a number of services to the state. In addition, Unikombank was also caught stealing money from the Moscow Region, the Mig concern, VGTRK and funds allocated for the reconstruction of the Moscow Hotel.
As a result, the stolen bank found itself on the brink of survival. To avoid criminal liability, Yeghiazaryan and Leonid Slutsky decided to receive a deputy mandate through the LDPR party, in which Zhirinovsky redrew the election lists for the sake of his sponsors. In December 1999, Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky entered the State Duma for the first time.
Leonid Slutsky and Vladimir Zhirinovsky
At the same time, the newly-minted parliamentarian was given the party’s quota for the post of first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs. Moreover, he was offered the position of deputy head of the Federal Assembly delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Leonid Slutsky today. Russian national team coach
In August 2020, Leonid Slutsky took Fabio Capello's place in the Russian national football team due to the resignation of the Italian coach. It was no coincidence that the choice fell on the “army team” mentor, since he managed to “raise” several successful football players and lead his football club to noticeable results. Together with him, the Russian national football team went to Euro 2016.
Leonid Slutsky went to Euro 2016 as national team coach
The first match (against a strong opponent - the England team) ended in a draw with a score of 1:1. The winning goal during extra time was scored by Vasily Berezutsky. However, the next game against the Slovak national team ended in a defeat for Russia (1:2), despite a goal scored by Denis Glushakov. Slutsky commented on the situation, noting that the team lost due to an urgent change in strategy due to a missed goal.
The match between the Russian national team and Wales ended in an absolute defeat for Slutsky’s team - 0:3. As a result, Russia took fourth place in the group and failed to qualify for the playoffs. Returning to Russia, Slutsky announced that he would leave his position as coach of the national team and focus on training with CSKA. The position of coach of the Russian national team passed to Stanislav Cherchesov.
Leonid Slutsky deputy
Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky was inactive as a deputy in the 2000s. He could rarely be seen at State Duma meetings. Leonid Slutsky himself said that he only attends those that he reports on himself. Slutsky explained his absenteeism by frequent business trips to the regions and emphasized that there were no complaints against him either in the faction or in the committee. Slutsky was actually assigned to the LDPR to become the curator of the regional branch in Yaroslavl.
Thus, the party leadership prepared Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky to head the party list of the Yaroslavl region in the 2007 elections. The metropolitan politician then spared no resources on his campaign and invited singer Larisa Dolina and singer-songwriter Mikhail Zvezdinsky to speak in his support.
In addition, Leonid Slutsky promised to do a large number of useful things for the region by the millennium of Yaroslavl, but after he was once again elected to the State Duma, he actually forgot about his promises.
Leonid Slutsky in PACE
In PACE, Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky was more active. At the very beginning of his activities in this organization, he prepared a number of reports, including “On the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross”, “On Monaco’s accession to the Council of Europe” and “On the closure of the monitoring procedure of the Principality of Monaco”. At that time, Leonid Slutsky, among other things, was the coordinator of the deputy group for relations with the French Parliament. In addition, the Russian deputy Slutsky, together with Prince Albert II of Monaco, took part in polar expeditions to the North Pole and Antarctica, dedicated to the problems of climate change.
Among Russia’s victories in PACE, to which Leonid Slutsky also had a hand, was the Assembly’s refusal to recognize the independence of the Serbian region of Kosovo in 2007. This is precisely the position that the Russian delegation advocated. Leonid Slutsky was also active after the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. His task then was to divert the discussion in PACE on this issue from the political channel to solving the humanitarian problems of the region.
And yet, for Russian voters, Leonid Slutsky remained barely noticeable. He received a certain amount of media attention in the late 2000s, when employees of the Department of Economic Security of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs detained Leonid Slutsky’s former assistant, Viktor Sokhatsky, red-handed while receiving illegal cash rewards. Sokhatsky demanded this reward for organizing a deputy request to law enforcement agencies demanding that they stop checking the financial and economic activities of one of the Moscow entertainment clubs.
Coaching career
Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky was an excellent student, graduating from the Institute of Physical Education with honors. After that, he continued his education in graduate school, starting parallel coaching activities. He was 22 years old when he recruited 12-year-old boys into his Olympia team who dreamed of becoming famous football players. Under the leadership of Slutsky, Olimpia Volgograd won the Russian Cup by 1999, getting a chance to play in the second division.
Leonid Slutsky and the Olimpia team
Since 2001, Leonid began coaching football players playing in the reserve team of Uralan from Elista. After the collapse of the Elista club, Leonid Viktorovich took a coaching position in the second team of the Moscow football club. He didn't have to train the double team for long. Already in 2005, the man became the mentor of the main team.
Such cooperation with the Moscow club lasted 2 years, although the players could get a prize-winning place in the Russian Cup. At that time, FC Moscow remained in 4th place and received the opportunity to play in the UEFA Cup.
Leonid Slutsky at FC Moscow training
Despite all the team’s achievements, Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky was fired from his position, prematurely terminating the contract that was signed before 2010.
The man was not left without a job; he was offered to become the head coach of the Samara “Wings of the Soviets”. The contract was signed for 3 years, but even here there were frictions and misunderstandings. Although the club played with good results, Leonid Viktorovich still had to leave after 2 years, writing a letter of resignation of his own free will.
Leonid Slutsky as head coach of the Krylia Sovetov club
Since 2009, he has become a coach of the professional club CSKA. Under his leadership, the athletes reached the playoffs of the Champions League, and in 2011 they won the championship, taking the Russian Cup for the 6th time. This award became the first trophy for coach Slutsky.
Nowadays, few people remember that the appointment of the head of the army coaching staff was opposed by a fan named Malikov, who imagined himself to be a privileged fan only because he had once transferred 3 million rubles to a children’s school. This man came to the club’s management and stated that in the event of at least some victory, CSKA, led by Slutsky, would buy a hippopotamus for the Moscow Zoo and would take care of it in the future. As soon as the team won the title, the fan disappeared, “technically jumped off.”
CSKA head coach Leonid Slutsky
In August 2020, Slutsky was entrusted with coaching the Russian national team players, while leaving the opportunity to train CSKA Moscow. After the failure at Euro 2016, Leonid Slutsky announced his desire to leave the post of head coach of the Russian national team.
In an interview with one sports publication, the coach of the champions said that by the mid-2000s he had changed his attitude towards his players. For his sports biography, Slutsky developed 2 coaching postulates - managing people and football itself.
Leonid Slutsky as head coach of the Russian national team
“I don’t try to educate or set ephemeral goals, I don’t go into the humanitarian aspect. Everything is quite simple - I must achieve discipline, fulfillment of my demands. Compared to me 10 years ago, I have become a more cynical coach, more demanding, not once again explaining my decisions. It’s much more interesting to me what kind of relationships the players have with each other than how they treat me.”
In 2020, Leonid Viktorovich moved to Foggy Albion and took on the British club Hull City. The Russian coach had to learn English, but apparently not so well, because in a conversation with Dutch reporters he mixed up the words sack and suck.
Leonid Slutsky
If the first is translated as a harmless “fire”, then the second sounded obscene in that context. At the same time, Slutsky’s reservation caused a stir only in the Russian media; Leonid’s entourage did not understand at all what it was about.
The coach remembered the English period in his career because he had to work with a team from which players left almost every day. In fact, Slutsky spent the preseason with one squad, the start of the national championship was held with the second, and by the 5th round a third was formed. The hopes of coaches and owners for performance were not justified: Leonid left the club when it occupied 20th of 24 lines in the Championship. The contract was terminated by mutual consent.
Leonid Slutsky in England
Slutsky arrived in the Netherlands in mid-2018 to coach the local Vitesse. In England, the coach was supported by businessman Roman Abramovich, and in his new place of work was the team owner, oil tycoon and developer Shalva Chigirinsky, who bought the club from Merab Jordania, well known to football fans of the USSR era. According to rumors, Abramovich was the true owner of Vitesse.
Leonid Slutsky and Resin
Around the same time, a rumor was started that Leonid Slutsky was the illegitimate son of Vladimir Resin, who in those years controlled the construction industry in Moscow.
Leonid Slutsky and Vladimir Resin
It is difficult to say how justified this statement was, but most likely it was born due to the fact that Slutsky and Resin, indeed, starting from the 1990s, jointly lobbied for certain interests in the construction industry, and even often kept each other company on business trips.
Vladimir Resin
By the way, a little later, in January 2020, the scandalous businessman Sergei Polonsky, testifying in the case of the theft of 2.6 billion rubles from shareholders of the Kutuzovskaya Mile and Rublevskaya Riviera residential complexes, said that he gave a bribe in the form of a penthouse with an area of 990 sq. m. to the former Deputy Mayor of Moscow Resin. Moreover, according to him, it was Leonid Slutsky who extorted an apartment in the elite complex “Kutuzovskaya Riviera” in the Setun River valley for the official.
Leonid Slutsky and the landing scandal
And in the early 2010s, Leonid Slutsky caused a public outcry with his helicopter landing on the territory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on the day of the Orthodox holiday of Trinity. The landing was not agreed upon in advance and caused outrage among parishioners and temple workers.
The deputy explained his action by saying that he was in a hurry to meet with Patriarch Kirill, but due to traffic jams on the Yaroslavl highway, he was forced to use the services of a helicopter company. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky promised to punish his fellow party member with a fine, but at the same time emphasized that his faction colleague is “a very pious person.”
This scandal did not cost Slutsky his parliamentary mandate. Literally the same year, Leonid Slutsky began his new parliamentary term. Moreover, Leonid Slutsky headed the committee on affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, and, according to some information, precisely thanks to the lobbying of his candidacy by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Leonid Slutsky in the State Duma
Five years later, Leonid Slutsky headed the International Affairs Committee in the new State Duma, despite the fact that the new chairman of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, planned to promote Vyacheslav Nikonov to this place. In addition to the Russian Orthodox Church, Slutsky's candidacies were named among lobbyists, including Resin, Sobyanin and even Medvedev.
Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky has had ties with the Russian Orthodox Church since the late nineties, when he, among other things, participated in Gazprom projects for the construction of churches. Leonid Slutsky, through the then head of the state corporation Rem Vyakhirev, made acquaintance with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II. One of the main tasks of Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky then was to solve problems associated with the breakdown of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the church in Alexei II’s native Estonia. In particular, Leonid Slutsky participated in resolving the issue of returning property belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church in this country.
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So, in October 2009, Leonid Slutsky once again changed his club registration. The CSKA coach, as soon as he was appointed to his position, immediately set the highest goals for himself and his players. In his first season, he took second place in the Russian Championship, in the second he won the Russian Cup, in the third he took third place in the championship, and only in his fourth year at the helm of the club was he able to win the Russian Championship. That same year the club won the Cup, as well as the Russian Super Cup. In 2014 and 2016, he repeated his achievements, winning two more national championships. However, the 2016/17 season did not start very well for the coach, and in December 2020 he voluntarily left his post. But it is worth paying attention to the fact that for some period of time he coached not only CSKA. Who else was Slutsky? Coach of the Russian national team!
Leonid Slutsky and sex scandal
Leonid Slutsky headed the International Affairs Committee in 2020, even though two years earlier, after the Crimean referendum, he became one of the first seven individuals to be included in the US sanctions list, and then on similar lists of the European Union and Canada.
It is curious that a year before the Crimean events, Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky had disagreements with the leadership of the LDPR precisely on the issue of this peninsula. True, then he, being the head of the Committee on CIS Affairs, stated that all parliamentary factions were in favor of preserving the integrity of the territory of Ukraine.
But a new term in the State Duma presented Leonid Slutsky with perhaps the loudest scandal in his career. In February 2020, two correspondents and one producer, on condition of anonymity, reported to the Dozhd TV channel about sexual harassment of a deputy. Later, official accusations followed of four journalists from the parliamentary pool, namely BBC Russian Service correspondent Farida Rustamova, Dozhd TV channel producer Daria Zhuk, ex-Kommersant correspondent Anastasia Karimova and RTVi journalist Ekaterina Kotrikadze.
At the same time, Rustamova even published a transcript of the audio recording of her conversation with the deputy, from which it becomes clear that the man behaved very frivolously. The people's representative called the accusations "ordered" and a low-grade provocation, but refused to take a lie detector test, just in case.
Some of his colleagues in parliament and even the “Women’s Club” of the State Duma spoke out in defense of Leonid Slutsky. And State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin not only announced an attempt to discredit the politician, but even advised journalists who believe that it is dangerous to engage in professional activity in the Duma to change jobs. Vladimir Zhirinovsky expressed dissatisfaction with the publication of anonymous accusations, but, nevertheless, promised to study them, which he limited himself to. The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, also supported Slutsky.
It should be noted that these two politicians have known each other since the 2000s, when the deputy accompanied PACE rapporteurs on the situation in the Chechen Republic. Leonid Slutsky himself initially very ironically discussed what happened with his colleagues online, but on International Women’s Day, congratulating women on his social network page, he asked for forgiveness from those of them “to whom he has ever, voluntarily or unwittingly, caused any distress.”
This scandal could be associated with the possible resignation of Sergei Lavrov from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the intensified struggle for the designated position. This version was also supported by the fact that the person involved in another sex scandal was the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for international relations in the Government, Sergei Prikhodko. In addition, Lavrov’s press secretary Maria Zakharova also recalled the MP’s ambiguous behavior towards herself.
But, according to rumors, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church would really like to see Slutsky in Sergei Viktorovich’s place. The church even issued a special statement regarding the scandal, which said that men should not be deprived of the “fundamental opportunity to court women,” and that if a man “crosses the line” but “stops,” then “everything is fine.”
Rumors have emerged that church patrons believe that all the intrigues come from First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko and Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. At the same time as these rumors, people from the patriarch’s inner circle criticized Peskov, and the “Forty Forty” movement even called for the dismissal of the President’s press secretary. And Patriarch Kirill, for his part, announced the end of the dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and Protestants, despite the fact that at the beginning of the year Kiriyenko spoke flatteringly about this branch of Christianity and called for “adopting their experience.”
The fact that a campaign has been launched against Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky was also indicated by the fact that material from the famous oppositionist Alexei Navalny appeared online, in which he listed several unpleasant facts about the deputy. The head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation pointed out that the Slutsky family owns several expensive cars, whose total cost is several annual earnings of the parliamentarian and his wife. In addition, Leonid Slutsky ten years ago leased a forest plot on Rublyovka until 2055 and never declared it. The forest plot is adjacent to Slutsky’s dacha and has an area of one hectare.
In addition to these facts, Navalny pointed out that one of the cars that Leonid Slutsky drives has received 835 fines totaling 1.4 million rubles since June 2017 alone. The fact that Deputy Slutsky really does not like to vegetate in traffic jams was indicated not only by the incident with the helicopter, but also by the fact that in 2013, employees of the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained two traffic police inspectors who were giving Slutsky a lift in a car with their “beacons” turned on. to the airport.
Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky, thanks to his father’s connections, initially had a chance to build a good career either in the banking sector or in bureaucratic offices, but instead fate brought him to the State Duma. At the same time, what can be called unexpected is not the fact that Slutsky received a parliamentary mandate, but the fact that his career in parliament followed an international line.
Nevertheless, thanks to his patrons, today Leonid Slutsky heads the Duma Committee on International Affairs. At the same time, the latest sex scandals with an international deputy may indicate that someone may consider him a real contender for the most serious positions outside the State Duma.
Slutsky turned out to be a coach for internal use
Russian coach Leonid Slutsky ingloriously leaves the English football club Hull City, where Leonid Viktorovich worked for only six months. During this time, Hull, which plays in the second most important league in England, the Championship, has reached sporting rock bottom, dropping to 20th place and really vying for relegation to the third division. Although just a season ago Hull played in the English Premier League.
Slutsky's team has not won in the last seven rounds, with three draws and four defeats. And this, by the way, is very reminiscent of the Russian period of coach Slutsky at CSKA - closer to winter, his team fell into an inexplicable trance and lost points and positions. It was under Slutsky that Hull achieved its worst result in the last 7 years! Let's try to figure out why this happened.
The Russian football community warmly accepted Slutsky’s desire to go coach in the homeland of football. Many coaches dream of trying themselves in England. Coach Slutsky's track record is quite impressive. With CSKA he became the champion three times, won Cups and Super Cups of Russian football. The coach decided to try himself in Western football after leaving CSKA.
But there are important details here. His dismissal from the army club followed a huge failure with the Russian national team, whose head coach Leonid Viktorovich combined with work at CSKA. Despite living examples of the detrimental nature of such a combination, and let us recall that such mastodons of the Russian coaching workshop as Oleg Romantsev and Valery Gazzaev fell, Slutsky at the end of 2020 agreed to lead the national team, while simultaneously remaining the coach of CSKA.
A key role in this appointment was played by the President of the RFU and Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who needed to correct the image of the department and the team by removing from it the highly paid Italian specialist Fabio Capello, whom, by the way, Mutko himself imposed on his predecessor as head of the RFU, Nikolai Tolstykh. Mutko recommended him for this post instead of the unpopular Sergei Fursenko. Signs of smiling people should be placed here, but these are the realities of Russian football.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
According to some reports, the prize conditions outlined by the RFU - 2 million euros, which according to the contract were intended for the head coach for leading the team to the European Championship, played an important role in the decision to become the coach of the national team. Having solved this problem in his qualifying group, and having won decisive victories, although not without difficulty, over Sweden and Montenegro, Slutsky led the team to the European Championships in France. But at the European Championship itself, the Russian team failed spectacularly, taking last place in its group. And Slutsky distinguished himself by actually blaming the defeat on the players who did not fulfill his tasks and “were poorly prepared physically.” It is the solution of these issues, by the way, that falls within the competence of the coach and his staff; Football players, by the way, are also selected for their team not by an outside uncle, but by the head coach. But it wasn’t enough for the LAN to blame its own players; in a scandalous interview with Yuri Dudu, he also called his team “shit,” which no coach of the national team, be it a Russian citizen or a foreigner, allowed himself to do! The most serious image blow to the reputation of the country's main team remained unanswered, although in any other team the most severe fines would have been applied to the coach for such things, not to mention dismissal.
The blow Slutsky received in the national team raised questions about the specialist’s professional skills. Only with Slutsky a situation arose when the coach who led the club to 3 championships was not unconditionally loved by all CSKA fans. It is difficult to find examples of such an attitude. Slutsky was loved at the club and hated just as fiercely, considering his tactics “cowardly”, criticizing him for the lack of young players in the squad, as well as for his monotonous playing tactics. The disadvantages of Slutsky, with undoubted advantages, was also the fact that while occupying high positions in the RFPL, his CSKA catastrophically failed in the Champions League every time. Taking last place four years in a row.
Actually, the whole point of the complaints against the coach boiled down to a simple thought - yes, captain, there is no question, you know how to coach, and even with such a powerful figure as the president of PFC CSKA Evgeniy Giner behind your back. But we want to see not only a coach for internal use, but also a specialist in European competitions!
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The arguments of the so-called “Slutskophiles” about the insufficient selection of CSKA in recent seasons and strong opponents in the Champions League groups were weighty. But then, as luck would have it, in the south of Russia the phenomenon of FC Rostov coach Kurban Berdyev arose, who in just one season, having huge financial problems and a roster of players written off from big clubs or unknown to anyone, suddenly went uphill, successfully performing in the Russian Championship and almost becoming a champion, as well as spending two enchanting seasons in European competition, defeating Ajax, taking out Bayern, and drawing with the future winner of the Europa League, Manchester United.
Having failed with the national team, Leonid Viktorovich finally degenerated creatively at CSKA, which is logically explained by his long stay in the team - the coach was at the helm for seven years. Viktor Goncharenko, who replaced Slutsky at CSKA, having much bigger problems with the squad, without playing under the leadership of his predecessor Doumbia, Musa, Wagner, Honda, Eremenko, Gonzalez, Elm and other significant players, generously sprinkled salt on the wounds of the “Slutskophiles” and gave a lot of answers “ Slutsk-phobes."
Any other Russian coach for all these matters would have long ago been trampled into the dirt by our wonderful sports press, but what could not be taken away from LVS was respect for journalists and the ability to work with the press. That is why Slutsky’s transfer to the team of the second league, not the highest, I emphasize, was received with delight and applause. Although it would seem - a multiple champion and coach of the national team, but in the second division!
And now we are gradually approaching the reasons for Slutsky’s inexpressive performance in England. But they are still the same. Success on the domestic Russian stage is one thing. Playing in Europe, where the best players and the best coaches are, is completely different.
The fact that Slutsky decided to train where he did not have a comfort zone and Giner behind him evokes great respect. The fact that he failed there does not cause any surprise among experts. Unfortunately, Leonid Viktorovich remained a coach for internal use. And in this fact there is no offense or insult, in this fact there is a simple professional statement. Which you just have to come to terms with for now.
Well, I’m sure Slutsky still has a long and long career in Russia. For example, in Krasnodar, where the authority of coach Shalimov has been falling so desperately and for a long time.
