From Lokomotiv this winter we have to expect constant movement, or, as Dmitry Bulykin wrote in his dissertation, “locomotion”. Everyone understands that the team is not in its place, but the departures of Dynamo and Rubin in recent years also convincingly indicate that there are no guarantees. Especially if you are one point away from the relegation zone.

Lokomotiv has a new chairman of the board of directors Nagornykh, a new coach Galaktionov, new players Glushenkov and Pinyaev. But what does the overall plan of salvation look like? It cannot consist in total rearrangements on all floors: if you put new people on each of them, new people can also safely fly out. The voices of people close to the decision-making centers at Loko say that the work is not in the direction of a complete renovation, but in the search for people and meanings that would provide the club with internal cohesion.

Lokomotiv needs a leader. Can he give Barinov to Besiktas?

On the second day after the final of the World Cup in Qatar at Hamad Airport, waiting for a Moscow flight, one could meet football players from Russia – both active players and those who had put their careers on an indefinite pause. For example, between souvenir shops that give the last chance to spend the rest of the Qatari rials, I came across Pavel Pogrebnyak. And also Dmitry Barinov. But if in these January days of the Lokomotiv midfielder everyone is trying on to move to the Turkish Besiktas, then in those December days, Dmitry, in a short private conversation, was only connected with his thoughts with his current club. “We all failed together, and now we all get out together,” said Barinov.

Dmitry Barinov / Photo: © FC Lokomotiv»

He himself definitely feels this responsibility, which is normal for a footballer of his age and experience against the background of a squad that the previous leaders deliberately made young and multilingual. Loko needs a player with a strong will who can be a leader. The club has the right to believe that Barinov himself does not close this vacancy. But he is aware that the “leaders” are not easily bought on the side. In the market to catch such a luck is even more significant than buying a scoring striker. It makes more sense to keep the current leader on the team. It is more difficult to plan to get money for him to buy another.

They spent almost everything they could on Glushenkov and Pinyaev

Lokomotiv does not have much opportunity to spend money now. After the transfers of Maxim Glushenkov and Sergey Pinyaev to Moscow, according to our information, another Wings player, captain Alexander Soldatenkov, could move. Fasson’s injury was a serious blow to the center of defense. But the new head coach of Lokomotiv felt that Soldatenkov would not have helped the team.

Lokomotiv expects to find a new central defender abroad, but is more likely to be ready for a loan rather than a serious purchase. In addition to defense, the club needs another player of the central axis – a shock striker. The prospects for those who are already there have not yet been determined. It is assumed that Isidore and Kerk will not stay in Lokomotiv. If they leave, the legionary group will be reduced by almost half, and in fact will disappear: only Kamano will remain, because the 19-year-old Mitai and Mampassi, as well as the 22-year-old Rakognac, did not really play.

Maxim Glushenkov / Photo: © FC Lokomotiv

The tacit rejection of the search and development of foreign youth, without which the notorious “Rangnick strategy” was unthinkable, was not proclaimed today. It’s already a given. And Lokomotiv no longer intends to turn in that direction.

Young legionnaires are a dead end for Lokomotiv

“Strategy” in the new conditions has no political, economic or sporting meaning. According to our information, the club came to the conclusion that the methods that Western managers tried to use at Loko did not work in Russia. Young foreigners to whom the club gave practice could still help increase the transfer turnover and income of international agencies with which the Rangnick team is connected, but did not benefit Lokomotiv itself.

At the same time, the railway workers are clearly not abandoning the youth vector. The key to this is the invitation of coach Galaktionov, who was also taken to PARI NN for football and pedagogical work. Now he has to solve similar problems, only on a different level. Although it is not easy to define it: on the one hand, the scale of the new club and the capital, on the other hand, here, unlike his career stage in the Volga region, there is a struggle for survival. Galaktionov moved from Nizhny Novgorod to the bottom of the standings.

Mikhail Galaktionov / Photo: © FC Lokomotiv

Lokomotiv is in for a tough spring, which will begin with cup games against Spartak, to whom it has already lost twice this season, and then two trips to Rostov-on-Don and Grozny in a row. Further on a short stretch there will be Krasnodar and Zenit. Time to search for the game and the result of the new team is running out.

The new family of Lokomotiv – without patriarch Semin

The club’s new strategy is based on roots and traditions. It seems that in Loko now the most needed people in all personnel niches – from football players to managers – are those who are not accidental for this club. They need a new frame, or, since we are talking about railway workers, a new metal frame.

Such employees are required, regarding which the fans will not have the question “why is he in Loko?” The automatic answer will be: “because he already worked for us (played, coached)”. For example, Dmitry Balashov, the current general director of the Tula Arsenal, worked as the head of the team in the golden age of Yuri Semin. Lokomotiv is now interested in this figure. Or Alexander Udaltsov, who, after leaving Lokomotiv, did not disappear in the Dynamo system, where he holds the post of director for the development of sports projects and contributed to the rapid growth of the women’s team.

The new Lokomotiv team is still busy putting together itself. But the principle of this assembly can be guessed: people with roots in Loko should come. The club wants to become a self-sufficient and original system again, which could have a certain force of attraction and keep close those who have already brought benefits to Lokomotiv. True, in such a construction, Loko is doomed to somehow work with the figure and image of Semin. For many fans, he is still Lokomotiv. And if a team-family with traditional railway values ​​is created, then what about its healthy and vigorous patriarch? What kind of family is he not a part of?