Orenburg will start the next season with a new head coach: after Marcel Lichka, who is redeemed by Dynamo for a million euros, the team will be picked up by Jiri Jarosik. According to sports director Dmitry Andreev, the official appointment will take place after “everything is decided with Marcel.”
“SE” remembers what kind of player Yaroshik was and who he focuses on as a coach.
Lichka is preparing to lead Dynamo. It will definitely get betterJiri-player: cried because of the transfer to Russia, cut with Steve Bruce in the locker room and clashed with the “Wings
In 2003, 26-year-old Jiri wanted a change: he had already won three championships with Sparta, hung around the base of the Czech national team and felt the atmosphere of the Champions League, which in Prague was felt only on holidays – but he wanted more often. The midfielder decided to move to Europe: they say that Bayern even followed the player, but CSKA worked the fastest. Evgeny Giner was not stingy with paying 3.6 million euros, which at that time became a record for Russian football. Everyone was happy – except Yaroshik himself.
According to him, moving to Russia was a difficult stage. “When we flew to Moscow, we were not yet sure that we would sign this contract. I think the agents didn’t know anything about CSKA at that time either. It was not easy for them to say: “Jiri, this option is just super for you.” Perhaps CSKA even paid them extra to convince me to sign a five-year contract.
After we signed the contract, the agents left. It was very cold outside – minus 25 degrees, snow was falling. I called my relatives and said that I had become a CSKA player. I was very sad in my soul, I even cried, because I realized that I was far from my family, all alone in a foreign country. I dreamed of Europe, but ended up in Russia,” Yaroshik recalled.
But soon Jiri discarded the negative, adapted and scored a brace in his debut match against Rubin, and after a round scored the winning goal against Spartak in the 90th minute.
Jiri was twice ranked among the best players in the Russian championship, and in 2005 he left for Chelsea Jose Mourinho for 8 million euros. Valery Gazzaev was very upset because of the loss of Yaroshik, but Jiri probably experienced the opposite emotions – he finally got a chance to play in a European top club.
True, the Czech was taken to Chelsea for the role of a reservist. And while he was imbued with the spirit of the Premier League, CSKA won the UEFA Cup. “Yes, we won the English championship for the first time in 50 years, but I was a reservist, I hardly played,” the footballer reasoned. – I left CSKA as a leader, and if I won the UEFA Cup with the team, it would be very valuable for me. In any case, I was extremely happy for the club, this is a great achievement.”
Jiri Jarosik: “I was a stupid Czech”In London, Yaroshik did not work out. Six months later, he went on loan to Birmingham to Steve Bruce. And he definitely didn’t get bored there: Bruce didn’t know what position the Czech was playing in (although this did not stop Jiri from scoring eight goals and becoming one of the team’s top scorers), and he also rushed at the player in the locker room.
“We played in the FA Cup against Millwall. I started the game on the bench, went out in the second half, but changed clothes for a long time. The match went to a penalty shoot-out, I scored my shot, we won and moved on, but Bruce started yelling at me in the locker room that he didn’t need such a player, and threw a bottle at me. They are all throwing something at Manchester United, ”said the player, recalling that Bruce played for Manchester United in the 80s and 90s.
Birmingham still flew out, and it became completely unrealistic to get into the Chelsea base. Therefore, Jiri left for Celtic: he scored again in his debut match, beat Spartak and Manchester United in the Champions League, won everything in Scotland … And returned to Russia! “Wings of the Soviets” wanted to see Yaroshik in tandem with Sergei Semak: he personally called the Czech to Samara, but at the last moment left for Rubin.
And while Semak took titles in Kazan, Jiri worked with the young Leonid Slutsky. He also clashed with the management over debts: “A crisis is a crisis, we understand this well. Then you don’t have to say: “We will pay off everything in a week, in two.” When this is repeated once or twice, it is still normal. But not ten! This is ridiculous!”
A couple of months later, Jiri fled to Zaragoza, where, ironically, there were also financial problems: the Spaniards owed the Czech 80% of his salary (at least 500 thousand euros). Zaragoza was followed by a return to Sparta, another attempt to play in Spain (already in Alaves) and the end of his career in 2015.
Yaroshik-coach: studied in Russia, failed with the champion of Slovenia, inspired by Gazzaev
Two years after the end of his playing career, Jiri began working with the youth team of Sparta – already as a coach. Yaroshik received the Pro category in Russia – moreover, he studied in a group with Denis Boyarintsev, Igor Semshov and Konstantin Zyryanov.
The Czech calls Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone, and also Valery Gazzaev as the main reference points in the profession (he is connected with the last two by an ardent temper on the edge).
“Gazzaev is a very strong and demanding coach,” said Jiri. – Valery Georgievich liked to give the players loads at the training camp, he had to run a lot. But during the season you felt very good physically. Gazzaev was sometimes tough, but fair, he could joke with the players.
But the Czech does not want to throw bottles in the locker room, like Steve Bruce. “I can scream in the locker room even now. Hitting a table or kicking something with your foot is also okay. But I’m not going to specifically throw something at the players. Now, if at the last minute we lose the Champions League final due to a stupid mistake, then maybe I’ll quit, ”admitted Yaroshik.
Martin Jiranek and Jiri Jarosik: “Czechs are smarter than Russians”Jiri made his debut as a head coach in the club “Usti nad Labem” (Jaroshik played there when he was eight years old) from the second league of the Czech Republic. It turned out ambiguously: departure from the Cup in the second round, three defeats in 12 championship matches and dismissal at the end of the year. Although, according to the specialist, the club’s task was to develop youth and maintain a position in the top half of the table: by the time of the resignation, the team was third and four points behind the leader.
However, for a long time Yaroshik did not remain without work. And a month later he headed Celje, which won the Slovenian championship a season earlier, but fell into a crisis and fought for survival. Yaroshik was invited by the Russian managers of the club, who definitely followed the RPL in the 2000s, and called him to save the team. But under Jiri, it only got worse: 8 losses in 12 matches, a descent to 9th place at the joints and a second dismissal in six months.
In the same year, Yaroshik returned to the Czech Republic, heading Prosteev from the second league, but failed there as well. But in the “Teplitz” from the Higher League, Jiri stayed for almost two years, although he lost eight starting matches. The team was transformed when Jiri moved from his favored 4-2-3-1 formation to a formation with three centre-backs. Yes, the team did not avoid play-offs, but retained its place in the elite – and the management trusted Yaroshik for the next season. It seems in vain: the club again fought for survival, got a goal difference of 35:57 and lost 13 matches out of 26. In April, Jiri was fired.
