The question is one of opportunity.

Changes continue in the Spartak offices. Since his appointment, almost nothing has been heard about Paul Ashworth’s work: only an insider about a business trip to Latin America. Now a reshuffle in the position of sporting director is expected.

Tried to bring Maksimovich, lost to Abascal

Paul Ashworth was initially a dubious candidate. Stories of match fixing invariably follow him. First in Rostov 18 years ago. Then – to Latvia. Former coach of Latvian “Dinaburg” Tamaz Pertiya, who fought for medals with “Skonto”, Ashworth, noted:

Only with the appearance of Ashworth in our football, accusations of organizing deals began to fall on competing clubs: this man aims to create various intrigues.

Subsequently there was a period of work in Kazakhstan – said the Kazakh journalist Aidyn Kozhakhmet in this regard:

Ashworth has not proven himself to be a great manager capable of attracting quality players for little money. The biggest epic failure occurred when he tried to sign Kazakh national team midfielder Alexander Merkel at Astana. At that time he was playing in Holland. And Merkel said in an interview that Ashworth himself called him and offered to move to Astana, on the condition that Merkel abandons all his agents and Ashworth himself brings him to the club. Paul wanted to take the juice out of this transition.

In Spartak the story continued. By the winter window, the British civil servant was facing a large-scale transfer campaign. Abascal needed reinforcements on the defensive flanks, a mobile defensive midfielder with a good passing culture. Ashworth tried to involve Nemanja Maksimovic, a Serbian from Getafe. The paradox is that the midfielder is extremely weak when playing passing and can only pass to someone close to him, he specializes in martial arts and a lot of hard work. For Nemanja they asked for 5.5 million euros.

As a result, right back Tomas Tavares and central defender Alexis Duarte joined the Spartak squad. The first was brought by Abascal: the Spaniard worked with him in Basel. There were also rumors that Guillermo would ask the latter to sign as well.

Ashworth’s doubts were justified

Subsequently, the authority of the Spanish mentor was consolidated, and Paul Ashworth remained in the shadows, creating the appearance of activity. An example is his business trip to Latin America in the second half of April.

There the official was looking for candidates for reinforcements. There were rumors about Matias Rojas, Joaquin Pereira, Rodrigo Garro. Efficiency that trip turned out to be zero: in the off-season they took Bongonda, Medina, Ryabchuk and Babich to Abascal. No Latinos.

Even then there were questions: why a sporting director who doesn’t bring results?

The former sporting director of Zenit has arrived in Moscow

The owners of the “red-whites” were worried about the same issue. In early November, it was reported that Ashworth’s duties would be significantly reduced or transferred to another non-work-related position on the transfer market. There were rumors about Kampusch among the candidates, but he built the Lille champion and almost rebuilt it PSGbut it makes no sense for him to go to Russia.

Now there are reports of another candidate. Ashworth’s potential replacement is Javier Ribalta. Under the Spaniard, Zenit again became the champions of Russia and secured its hegemonic status. Subsequently I gained experience working at Marseille, but now the Provençal team has been relegated to 8th place and the sporting director has been left without a job.

Note that the Muscovites will resolve the issue in December, Javier is the favorite for the position. At the same time, the Spaniard himself is ready to move to Russia. Yesterday the official had already been noticed in the capital. According to rumors, Ribalta left the airport in the company of a Spartak employee.

There is no point in having foreigners in this position now

IN RPL the realities are simply not the same. Typically, Europeans are called for the sporting director position to use their network of contacts in the search for reinforcements. Now this is irrelevant: there are no European Cups, there are no intrigues and competitions. It is worth remembering how many deals failed just last summer: Rogerio and Davinson Sanchez did not come to Spartak. Sassuolo sporting director Giovanni Carnevali, for example, spoke openly about the failure of the negotiation for the Brazilian:

We didn’t sell Rogerio to Spartak for ethical reasons. There was a very serious offer of 8 million euros. Ethical reasons: We don’t want to deal with the Russians. We wanted to have a clear conscience, we didn’t want to do business with this country. Maybe at the cost of losing the player for free next summer.

In such realities, no lever is sufficient to change the situation.

Questions remain about the coach and the priority positions to strengthen

In October, Spartak general director Oleg Malyshev noted that Abaskal had a lot of merit, but since that time the “red-whites” have not improved, the team continues to move between the 4th and 7th lines. No progress is observed – this is still one of the problematic giants of the Premier League, which could even lose to Akhmat from the relegation zone.

The possible appointment of Ribalta will therefore coincide with the decision on the technical coach. The official may want to bring his own candidate, especially since under the current mentor the Muscovites are seriously feverish.

And along the chain, the issue of strengthening will then need to be addressed. It’s one thing to preserve Abascal. Then you can limit yourself to strengthening points and selling ballast. Another thing is with a new coach. In this case another renovation will begin.