FC Dynamo Kyiv president Ihor Surkis has shared his impressions of the game against FC Karpaty Lviv and commented upon the latest news.
- What do you think of the game against Karpaty?
- The team did pretty fine although we had to score in the first half.
- Mykhailenko scored his 1st goal for Dynamo today, Vanat – 40th. Did you like their performance?
- Vanat is our little star. Mykhailenko is our trainee who played for Oleksandria under the charge of really good coach, who taught him a lot. He also has great future.
- What were your expectations of the first game after the winter break?
- I expected the guys to be very motivated and fight throughout the game which they did. I’m really satisfied with this match. It’s very tough to start after the winter break, but actually we’ve already played two games – against Galatasaray and RFS. The only thing that worries us all is the war. When it ends, there will be a surge of emotions and the development of our Ukrainian football will resume.
- What do you think of the new euro cups format that implies January games? How was the team getting ready for that?
- At first they were getting ready for these particular games and then for the UPL. The training camp consisted of two parts. First of all it’s a new experience. I thought it was impossible to get ready for those two games properly having only two weeks, but we did.
Maybe those weren’t our best games, but we won some points for Ukraine. But generally the euro cups season was a failure and Oleksandr Shovkovskyi admits that. We must make conclusions and do better.
- Have any conclusions been made already?
- We’ll find out when we face such teams as Shakhtar, Kryvbas. We must move forward as we did really poorly.
I hope the war will end, and then we can talk about quality transfers that will clearly strengthen the team. I hope we’ll look better next season.
- Are you jealous that Shakhtar signs expensive players?
- I’m not, it’s their right. They do it for the future. We don’t really succeed with the Brazilian vector. We had Vitinho, a very quality football player. We couldn’t persuade him to return to Ukraine. I used Shakhtar Donetsk as an example for Brazilians, but neither his father nor his mother agreed. He doesn’t want to return while the war is going on. But he still has 2.5 years of contract with our club, he will return.
The war will end, I have no doubt. It must end on Ukraine’s terms. Both our guys and I support what our President says – there can be no negotiations without Ukraine. I hope that this year the war will end, and we will move on.
- Can you share the details of the potential transfer of Brazhko?
- There was an offer from Wolverhampton, which we didn’t accept. I held my nerve and we kept him in the team. I talked to Brazhko and explained to him that he first should to do something for Dynamo so that we could sell him. We let Zabarnyi go, Mykolenko, so we don’t hold anyone by force. But they should benefit us, considering that we’ve been raising them since childhood. There will be offers, maybe in summer, maybe next winter. I hope he has everything ahead of him.
- Did he understand you?
- He did. He has a 3.5-year contract and next week we’ll extend it, so you can see that he heard me. We’ll give him better conditions. He’ll recondition as he missed a lot. I have no problems with the players. They were saying Vivcharenko would leave for free. At the training camp I talked to his agent, he understood that a player who was brought up at Dynamo cannot leave just because he wants to leave. That cannot be! The guys must feel responsible, first of all, to the club, and also to the fans. The club must receive money for the player, and he must go to the league that he likes. For a transfer, there must be all three components: the offer must suit the player, our club, and the club that makes the offer.
- You said you held your nerve when there was an offer for Brazhko. When was the last time something like that happened?
- Money is not my priority. I have Dynamo in my heart, I love this team and will love it until my last day. Money is not the most important thing in this life. The main thing now is for the war to end. We play football due to the decision made by the President and thanks to our guys who are fighting at the frontline. My brother and I have a foundation that helps as much as we can. When the war ends, we will continue to develop our football. I’m very grateful to all the club presidents who support the development of football, no one has left this matter. We’ll still rise in the ranking. I do not want to invite players to Dynamo who will block the path of our youth. The outcome of the UEFA Youth League game against Atalanta is an accident. We should have outplayed. For 80 minutes we were better. I won’t call names so as not to offend anyone, but there’re many guys in our youth team who can play for Dynamo main squad in a year, or maybe even earlier. Therefore, we don’t need to invite foreign players for the sake of quantity. We need to develop Ukrainian football so that guys can play for the national team in different age categories. I understand that the offer regarding Brazhko shows that our players will be in demand on the Western market.
- Guerrero doesn’t score. What’s going on with him?
- You know that I’m always sincere with the media. Guerrero needs to figure himself out first. He was given a chance, but he didn’t use it. As I understand it, Shovkovskyi will give him the second chance. But not the third. In Dynamo Kyiv you have to do what the team needs. He has to prove to the head coach in training that he’s better than Vanat. Then he will play, and if he plays, then he will score. Then he will have trust from both the fans and the coach.
