Champions League Comment: CSKA Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky - Russia’s very own special one
“I like the style of Leonid Slutsky. He is a young coach who doesn’t show his emotions and prepares his team very well.” These were the words of Jose Mourinho after his Inter side won against Slutsky’s CSKA Moscow in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at San Siro last week. The Portuguese is known to like many a manager, most recently speaking in favour of Siena’s Alberto Malesani, but this time his opinion is especially relevant, since 38-year-old Slutsky is dubbed “the Russian Mourinho” in his country.
The secret behind the nickname is simple. Just like the Special One, Slutsky never played professional football, and became a coach at a very young age, starting with youth teams and making fast progress. Unlike Mourinho, however, the Russian’s playing career was cut extremely short by a freak injury. Slutsky was a promising goalkeeper at the age of 19 when a neighbour asked him to rescue a cat that climbed on a high tree. Unable to say no to anyone, Slutsky bravely attempted to save the poor animal. When reaching for the top, he fell down, smashing his knee beyond repair, forced to spend almost a year in hospital. Doctors told him the knee would never function normally again, but luckily they were wrong. “Even now I find it hard to say no when people ask me something,” says Slutsky.
His goalkeeping dream cruelly ended, young Leonid turned to coaching, and took on a youth team in Volgograd at the age of 22. Some of the teenagers he managed in the mid-90s grew into good professional players, most notably Russia and Dimano Moscow stopper Denis Kolodin. A very thoughtful and well-read man, Slutsky was always disgusted with common perception of footballers as unintelligent people. He fought to prove the opposite, and even arranged his players into a sort of theatre troupe, performing to rave local reviews. Slutsky himself took part in the show, singing and dancing on the stage.
Acting aside, it’s his football coaching talents that were most impressive. At 32, he was at the helm at second division Elista. At 34, he made his debut in the Russian Premier League at ambitious FK Moscow, leading the team used to relegation battles to fifth, sixth and fourth-place finishes in three seasons of work. In 2008 Slutsky moved to Samara, driving them to historic Europa League qualification in his first season. 2009 was a tough year for Samara, with the club in huge financial troubles and allegedly selling games behind Slutsky’s back. Unwilling to deal with the terrible behind-the-scenes mess, Slutsky resigned before the season ended, and was immediately snapped up by CSKA.
When Leonid arrived at the former Army club at the end of October, it was in total disarray following 47 disastrous days under Juande Ramos. They faced the worst domestic season for eight years and were in a seemingly hopeless position in the Champions League. Slutsky won three league games out of four, assuring a fifth place finish that enabled CSKA to qualify for the Europe League next season. Then he surpassed all expectations, leading the Moscovites into the knockout stages of the biggest European competition for the first time, and beating Sevilla to reach the quarter-finals. CSKA’s bosses must be very happy that they believed in their man from the beginning, signing him to a three-year-contract, with an option for an additional two years.
Slutsky’s style is actually very different from that of Mourinho. He is a very humble and down-to-earth person, not known for outrageous public comments about himself or others. He is willing to talk to the press, however, and even wrote an unusually personal and philosophical Internet blog. Some of the opinions published there were pretty bold, with the coach stating in 2008 that he “was shocked when 70 per cent of the Samara players arrived to the pre-season camp in unacceptable physical condition”.
Contrary to the Portuguese, Slutsky is very calm and quiet during matches. His swinging back and forth on the bench reminds many of the late Valery Lobanovsky, but unlike the great Ukrainian, Slutsky is known to be close to his players. His celebrations on the pitch in Seville with a broad smile on his face, hugging everyone around, actually reminded many of similar Mourinho antics with Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard in his merry days at Chelsea.
On Tuesday, Slutsky has a chance to upstage the real Mourinho, and he believes the feat is possible: “We will try to play better than in the first leg, and explore Inter’s defensive weaknesses.” If CSKA go on to the semi-finals at the Serie A champions’ expense, Slutsky will definitely be a very Special One, although he’d be modest enough not to say so himself.
Source: www.goal.com