Today at the STB Kirsha Shakhtar had an open training. Coach of “miners” Mircea Lucescu exhaustively answered questions of pressmen.

-Mister, how did you spend your vacation?
-As usually. I have no time to rest. I had other problems to solve – I compensated my rest by that. I’ve been on Crete for three days.

-How did the training session go off and what is state of players?
- There were very good conditions for training session. We were lucky that it rained and it was not heat. And the field stood up to the rain and remained good. The only problem is that not all players were there. As I have already explained we started by groups. Everyone was to have a rest for twenty days. So today is the first day when all gathered. But it doesn’t mean that those who played in national teams didn’t work. The work was the same for everybody.

-And why Rat is absent?
-Yesterday he was injured a little on the training. Like Yezerskyy who also was injured in the last match at the session.

-And how is Castillo? He had an injury…
-Since he came Castillo was training like others. He also has worked near eight trainings in twos a day.

-It is rumored that Barcelona applied to Shakhtar regarding sale of Chygrynskyy. Is it true?
-It is being negotiated. The fact that Barcelona pays attention to one of our players matters a lot. They insist on negotiations and try to reach a consensus. For the present our reply to Barcelona’s offer is no. 

-What was wrong?
-Each player as everything in life has his value.

-Did Barcelona deflate the price?
-Yes, Barcelona offered considerably less than this player costs today.

-Please, tell about plans for Swiss training session.
-As usually the second session will base on games. We’ll have a lot of matches in Switzerland. We’ll gain form in games to start the championship very strongly. And almost at once in ten days after the championship starting we make a debut in the third qualifying round of the champions League. I’ve proposed to broadcast three matches in Switzerland to Ukraine by TV. It regards matches against Young boys, Basel and Panatinaikos. Such tournament takes a place there. Besides the games which we will play for sure, we’ll try to organize two matches more in order that all players had playing practice and could play for 90 minutes.

-Will Shakhtar get more new players?
-Leonardo and Lastuvka whose lease came to an end. And those who as you can see are training today. When we come back from Switzerland we’ll make decisions.

-Can you name those whom you’re going to lease?
-If I say it will be after Switzerland it is clear that it should be decided.

-Mr. Lucescu, what general tasks do you give the team for the new season?
-Today we’ve discussed with our players main tasks. The first and the most important one is of course to get into the group round of the Champions League. The second one is to start the championship well and strongly. It should be won because it allows due to the rating to play in the group phase of the Champions League at once. Probably we deserve to get into the Champions League at once. But this must be proved on the football field. We’ll try to win the championship. It is very important for us. The third one is to come out of the group in the Champions League if we manage to get there. The fourth one is development of our players both in playing and transferring prices. In order that they could be compared with players of leading European clubs. Plus the Ukrainian Cup. It will be later. 

-And what place is for the UEFA Super Cup?
-It is simply a match which we must participate in, - it is rather for the club image, of course. The most important is to play on August 25 in the qualified round. It is more important than that on August 28. Of course, the stadium opening also is a task.

-What do you think about Srna’s and Chygrynskyy’s chances to leave Shakhtar?
-Our further negotiations with Barcelona (and I think the offered price doesn’t correspond to the real price of Chygrynskyy for today) don’t mean that we’ll surely sell this player if new offers come. It confirms the fact: if Barcelona takes an interest in our player it means that our footballers have certain value. I wouldn’t like West European top-clubs to think that they may make such offers to the club from East Europe. This is a real offer to the club. There is also an offer for Castillo. It is also under negotiations. The idea is that no one should leave the team. 

-Does it mean that there are no offers for Darijo?
-I’ve already answered. There are two offers: one and another. This is all information I have. Surely all West European clubs want this player and there are many offers for him, but the club has no official one. 

-What do you think about the last transfers of Real? Are the prices for those footballers real?
- It doesn't interest me what those clubs do. They’ve gone far from us. If they pay this sum surely they decided that it wouldn’t take them a lot of time to return money.

-Spanish press says that Chygrynskyy costs 15 million Euro. Isn’t it true?
-I think it is too little. It is my position and my valuation of this player. It is also a valuation of players of our team who won the UEFA Cup. And if the great club takes interest in such player it should make a corresponding offer. Plus President’s answer that for the present any transfer is undesirable. 

-Will the transferring break for Shakhtar prolong till the end?
-I don’t want to talk about transfers. I’ve already told too much. We still have time. Today is your day. I congratulate you. Due to this day I’ve said more than I should.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office