The former general director of Spartak Yuri Zavarzin was ambivalent about the appointment of Briton Paul Ashworth to the post of sports director of the red-whites.

Ashworth’s appointment was announced by Spartak on Monday.

“No action is logical. It is clear that Ashworth did not come himself, but he was appointed. Who made the decision? Why didn’t they listen to what was said about this person not always positively? It remains only to be surprised. Over the past 20 years, a lot of strange things have been happening with Spartak. It is not clear who makes illogical decisions there, only they understand.

– Spartak announced the composition of the board of directors, headed by Alexander Matytsyn. Perhaps they need to ask questions about the decisions made.

– Matytsyn is quite busy with his other main work, which he has been doing for many years at Lukoil. And sport is not an easy optional task. He needs to pay attention. And not for 30 minutes or an hour a day. You need to get into the situation. I don’t think that with a lot of work at his main job, Matytsyn will pay enough attention to Spartak.

– When do you think it will be possible to evaluate the work of Ashworth?

– The influence of the sports director will manifest itself against the backdrop of the transfer window. If they start acting weird again and buying up players… But I don’t understand why. We don’t play in the Champions League. Whom to surprise? It is clear that in terms of playing potential, Zenit is higher and that it will become a champion. If Spartak will buy Russians, a foreign sports director is absolutely not needed.

– You can also sell players, and Ashworth with his connections will come in handy for this.

– This type of activity is not the main source of Spartak’s budget. It is filled with other resources.

– Lukoil announced that it would increase funding for Spartak. Isn’t it strange now in Russia to spend more on football?

— It is necessary to understand on what basis they dispose of resources. If the resources of a private individual, no one should be held accountable for anything. And if the state budget, then in due time they will ask the question: where did they spend the money? – quotes the words of Zavarzin “RB Sport”.

Ashworth previously worked as the head coach of the Latvian “Ventspils” and the acting head coach of the Kazakh “Astana”. His last place of work was the English club Brighton, where he served as technical director.

In 2005, he worked as the sports director of Rostov and acted as the head coach of this team.