President of CSKA Evgeniy Giner spoke about the state of affairs in the club prior to the start of the Russian Premier League season-2010.
"Talking about my feelings on the eve of the first match I can say that I am absolutely calm now," said Giner.
"I saw how the team was preparing for the season, watched its matches against Sevilla and Rubin and I confess that I like the current game of CSKA. And if there is good play there will be results."
"And though many people keep saying that the beauty of football is on the scoreboard the actually want it that the necessary score is achieved by really spectacular game."
"It is very difficult to compare seasons and the feelings preceding them: every year is unique. But from year to year I have less anxiety. Probably that comes with experience and trust in the team."
"I remember when we were starting the season with Pavel Sadyrin when CSKA got its first point in the fifth matchday only. I was in a twit and the experienced coach told me to relax and that the things would straighten out in the long run."
"And now I understand that Sadyrin was right: top clubs always amend the situation no matter how difficult it is. An excellent team can roll in the season slowly but then it will get back its own."
"And the teams of the middle level must win as many points as possible in spring when the fields are heavy and physical preparation decided a lot."
"Concerning our selection work I can say that it cannot be sufficient. While picking up new players the management of the club is guided by one simple rule: one must buy players either to fill in the troublesome positions or buy players better than ours."
"But it is impossible to buy players better than we have now: they do not want to move to Russia."
"We have almost reached the ceiling of our selection work. We fail to lure players in our team, instead they go to Real, Manchester, Barcelona."
"And those who are second best after them do not exceed our players. On the contrary, top clubs get interested in our footballers from time to time."
"I disagree that CSKA lacks depth of the squad. We have a first team and a couple of substitutes on every position. After all we have young players whom we should bring in the team."
"If we do not intend to give the youth a chance what for should we keep them in the team? Would Dzagoev, Schennikov, Mamaev be playing now if we have bought them to deepen the lineup."
"And moreover we have many all-rounders in the team able to cover several positions."
"It is senseless to think about possible injuries. In this case we must have thirty-forty equal players. Can you imagine what flow of claims will we face from those sidelined?"
"I think that for Russia, for those 30-40 matches in the season, including European Cups, a first team of 15-16 men is enough. And behind them we have youth – that is the way we organized our team."
