We shouldn’t be afraid to sell Academy players
Sunday, December 27, 2020
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On 26 December, the first part of a big interview with Sergei Palkin was released on Shakhtar Club and on Shakhtar TV
Shakhtar CEO analyzed the season’s first part and answered the fans’ questions of interest, including those about transfers and changes at the Academy.
- In your recent interview, you mentioned that in the Champions League Shakhtar have scored the most points among Eastern European clubs. What’s the reason behind this? Scouting, player development strategy?
- I would explain this by the work of the whole club, the entire system. It’s impossible to develop just one line and achieve success in general. It doesn't work like that. The central thing is the work of the whole club. One for all and all for one. We trust and support each other. For example, the director of football and the coaching staff, good relations between the president and the coach, between the chief scout and the director of football, and me ... We are a single team in terms of the sport component. At the same time, we do some serious and systematic work in other areas as well. Therefore, our result is the level of general development of the club. The result depends on the way we’re building our system.
- How much has the value of the well-performing Tete and Solomon increased after the Champions League group stage?
- By and large, we can already speak of them as the regulars. Recently, I have read many articles in the foreign press, in the top European football publications. They write very good reviews about Tete, Solomon, Marcos Antonio. We must understand that if the reporters have noticed this, then the top clubs’ scouts definitely have these players on their radar, surely having them in the database. When a team win, the value of every footballer rises - this is a regular pattern.
- Why have Shakhtar not acquired any new players for a long time?
- First of all, I want to say that there was a time when we bought many young footballers. Fernando, Cipriano, Marcos, Solomon, Tete, Vitao ... Of course, it took a while for them to adapt and reach their current level. While fans need it just today and now. But that never happens. It so happened that our senior players are about thirty, and the younger ones are about twenty. And we had to cover this distance. In some directions we slipped, but in some others everything went fine. In general, we understand that the guys whom we invited to the club are ready to play for the first team these days – that’s the main thing. In terms of acquisitions, if we talk about this transfer window, we are thinking about certain roles. But I can tell you one thing: those are neither centrebacks nor strikers, and not number 9.
- Are you satisfied with Zubkov’s move to the Hungarian league in terms of the price-quality ratio? A million euros ...
- One and a half million euros and 30 percent of the subsequent sale.
- Zubkov is now becoming one of the most important players in the Ukraine national team, but he is no longer a Shakhtar player.
- This is not an evaluative position. Not all national team players can be fine for Shakhtar. At the same time, he is a good player, in the matches between Ferencvaros and Dynamo he was one of the best players of both teams. We are sure that if he had moved to our club, he wouldn’t have been able to compete at his position, so we shouldn’t be afraid to sell the Academy players. For instance, we sold Malynovskyi, then he joined Atalanta, and everyone thought that Genk made some money and we didn't. But if we hadn't sold him continuing to loan him out, there would’ve been nothing at all. At that time we had Fernandinho, then Fred, their level was also high enough. If at the present moment we don’t see the guy on our roster and there’s a good offer from abroad, we should sell him. We can be wrong, but at any time we can return to that club, make an offer and buy the player back. The fact is that if we don’t do that, the guys may not prove themselves and just lose their form. Then we will lose both money and the promising player in the future. I want to repeat that we shouldn’t be afraid to sell the Academy players. As for Zubkov, we received money and a percentage of future sales, the national team got a football player, so it’s a win-win solution.
- There are many Shakhtar players on loan at other UPL clubs. Artem Bondarenko and Oleh Ocheretko are at Mariupol, Valerii Bondarenko is at Oleksandriia, Oleksandr Pikhalyonok is at Dnipro-1. Are they likely to return during the winter break?
- I do not think that someone will return during this winter break. Let's mention their names. Artem Bondarenko is, by and large, a discovery for our coach. The coach liked him from the first training sessions, the coach worked with him. He just needs to play. Bondarenko can sit on the bench, but that’s a bad option, so we decided to loan him out for him to have some playing practice - this is normal. Ocheretko was in the reserve team – he’s 17 years old. The first team includes Marcos Antonio, Alan Patrik, Kovalenko, the same Sudakov ... We loaned Oleh out to Mariupol, and today he is one of the leaders there. And the guy is just 17 years old! He delivers some really mature football. He also has a great future, I am sure that in six months or a little more he will return to Shakhtar and play here. He’s a talented guy, a really strong professional, a hard worker. I think he will definitely join Shakhtar. It’s a matter of time, and this, by and large, will depend on him.
- How would you rate the Academy’s performance in 2020?
- The Academy’s goal is to provide players for the first team. These days, Bondar, Korniienko, Trubin, Sudakov and Viunnyk are already on the field. There are a couple more guys who are expected to prove themselves soon, so we are content with the work of the Academy. Moreover, we have fully reformed the structure starting with the board of directors and the senior executive running the Academy. It includes the director for strategy, the director of football, the chief scout, myself, the Academy director, supervisors based on age, the chief scout of the Academy. For you to understand how we manage the Academy: the last meeting which is held once every quarter, has lasted three days. Everything is focused not on the result of a certain age, not on winning the league title (this is already a kind of motivating force within the Academy), but on the development of talents. If no one gets into the first team, the Academy works poorly then.
Watch a big interview with Sergei Palkin right now! The second part of the talk will be released next year. On the 2nd of January, the Shakhtar Club subscribers will be the first to watch it at 11:00, with the Shakhtar TV audience being able to watch it at 19:00. The club channel is available on the VOLIA network, the satellite Xtra TV, as well as on the platforms of MEGOGO, OLL.TV, Sweet.tv and Divan.tv.
- In your recent interview, you mentioned that in the Champions League Shakhtar have scored the most points among Eastern European clubs. What’s the reason behind this? Scouting, player development strategy?
- I would explain this by the work of the whole club, the entire system. It’s impossible to develop just one line and achieve success in general. It doesn't work like that. The central thing is the work of the whole club. One for all and all for one. We trust and support each other. For example, the director of football and the coaching staff, good relations between the president and the coach, between the chief scout and the director of football, and me ... We are a single team in terms of the sport component. At the same time, we do some serious and systematic work in other areas as well. Therefore, our result is the level of general development of the club. The result depends on the way we’re building our system.
- How much has the value of the well-performing Tete and Solomon increased after the Champions League group stage?
- By and large, we can already speak of them as the regulars. Recently, I have read many articles in the foreign press, in the top European football publications. They write very good reviews about Tete, Solomon, Marcos Antonio. We must understand that if the reporters have noticed this, then the top clubs’ scouts definitely have these players on their radar, surely having them in the database. When a team win, the value of every footballer rises - this is a regular pattern.
- Why have Shakhtar not acquired any new players for a long time?
- First of all, I want to say that there was a time when we bought many young footballers. Fernando, Cipriano, Marcos, Solomon, Tete, Vitao ... Of course, it took a while for them to adapt and reach their current level. While fans need it just today and now. But that never happens. It so happened that our senior players are about thirty, and the younger ones are about twenty. And we had to cover this distance. In some directions we slipped, but in some others everything went fine. In general, we understand that the guys whom we invited to the club are ready to play for the first team these days – that’s the main thing. In terms of acquisitions, if we talk about this transfer window, we are thinking about certain roles. But I can tell you one thing: those are neither centrebacks nor strikers, and not number 9.
- Are you satisfied with Zubkov’s move to the Hungarian league in terms of the price-quality ratio? A million euros ...
- One and a half million euros and 30 percent of the subsequent sale.
- Zubkov is now becoming one of the most important players in the Ukraine national team, but he is no longer a Shakhtar player.
- This is not an evaluative position. Not all national team players can be fine for Shakhtar. At the same time, he is a good player, in the matches between Ferencvaros and Dynamo he was one of the best players of both teams. We are sure that if he had moved to our club, he wouldn’t have been able to compete at his position, so we shouldn’t be afraid to sell the Academy players. For instance, we sold Malynovskyi, then he joined Atalanta, and everyone thought that Genk made some money and we didn't. But if we hadn't sold him continuing to loan him out, there would’ve been nothing at all. At that time we had Fernandinho, then Fred, their level was also high enough. If at the present moment we don’t see the guy on our roster and there’s a good offer from abroad, we should sell him. We can be wrong, but at any time we can return to that club, make an offer and buy the player back. The fact is that if we don’t do that, the guys may not prove themselves and just lose their form. Then we will lose both money and the promising player in the future. I want to repeat that we shouldn’t be afraid to sell the Academy players. As for Zubkov, we received money and a percentage of future sales, the national team got a football player, so it’s a win-win solution.
- There are many Shakhtar players on loan at other UPL clubs. Artem Bondarenko and Oleh Ocheretko are at Mariupol, Valerii Bondarenko is at Oleksandriia, Oleksandr Pikhalyonok is at Dnipro-1. Are they likely to return during the winter break?
- I do not think that someone will return during this winter break. Let's mention their names. Artem Bondarenko is, by and large, a discovery for our coach. The coach liked him from the first training sessions, the coach worked with him. He just needs to play. Bondarenko can sit on the bench, but that’s a bad option, so we decided to loan him out for him to have some playing practice - this is normal. Ocheretko was in the reserve team – he’s 17 years old. The first team includes Marcos Antonio, Alan Patrik, Kovalenko, the same Sudakov ... We loaned Oleh out to Mariupol, and today he is one of the leaders there. And the guy is just 17 years old! He delivers some really mature football. He also has a great future, I am sure that in six months or a little more he will return to Shakhtar and play here. He’s a talented guy, a really strong professional, a hard worker. I think he will definitely join Shakhtar. It’s a matter of time, and this, by and large, will depend on him.
- How would you rate the Academy’s performance in 2020?
- The Academy’s goal is to provide players for the first team. These days, Bondar, Korniienko, Trubin, Sudakov and Viunnyk are already on the field. There are a couple more guys who are expected to prove themselves soon, so we are content with the work of the Academy. Moreover, we have fully reformed the structure starting with the board of directors and the senior executive running the Academy. It includes the director for strategy, the director of football, the chief scout, myself, the Academy director, supervisors based on age, the chief scout of the Academy. For you to understand how we manage the Academy: the last meeting which is held once every quarter, has lasted three days. Everything is focused not on the result of a certain age, not on winning the league title (this is already a kind of motivating force within the Academy), but on the development of talents. If no one gets into the first team, the Academy works poorly then.
Watch a big interview with Sergei Palkin right now! The second part of the talk will be released next year. On the 2nd of January, the Shakhtar Club subscribers will be the first to watch it at 11:00, with the Shakhtar TV audience being able to watch it at 19:00. The club channel is available on the VOLIA network, the satellite Xtra TV, as well as on the platforms of MEGOGO, OLL.TV, Sweet.tv and Divan.tv.