Cherchesov is known for his scrupulous attitude to the language. Being the coach of the Russian national team, Stanislav Salamovich forbade his players a lot of words and expressions that seemed wrong to him. More than once, the specialist taunted journalists, turning press conferences into classes in philology.

Cherchesov continued his corporate language policy in Hungary. Even in the first training sessions, the Russian surprised the Ferencváros players by removing the words “problem” and “please” from use. But the replica of the specialist after a resounding victory in the Champions League struck the Hungarians even more.

Salamych chose very unexpected words for the team.

Spectacular comeback

The return match against Slovan, which took place on July 27 as part of the second qualifying round of the Champions League, was fateful for Ferencváros. A week earlier, the Hungarians unexpectedly lost to the Slovaks in their field (1:2), after which a flurry of criticism fell upon the Russian coach.

Then the fans even began to expel a specialist from the club, who, as you know, never achieved great success in European competition. For the Budapest club, Europe is now a priority – the Green Eagles have practically no competitors in the home arena. Last season, Cherchesov took the cup and the national championship with the team – Ferencvaros remains the favorite of both tournaments now.

Photo: © IMAGO/MICHAL CHWIEDUK / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

However, Salamych managed to convince the dissatisfied fans, at least for a while. Ferencváros won a powerful victory on the road to Bratislava, defeating the opponent with a score of 4:1. True, even in the 70th minute of the meeting, the teams were on an equal footing: the Slovaks played one ball, making the total score in two matches a draw (3:3). Fortunately, the Hungarians managed to pull themselves together and crushed the opponent, scoring a couple more goals in the very end.

“I can only say two words”

The victory over Slovan allowed Ferencvaros to get into the third qualifying round of the Champions League, where the team will face Qarabag. This rival is quite tough for the Hungarians: only in terms of the cost of squads, one club is three times superior to the other (42 million versus 14 million).

But Cherchesov, apparently, does not want his players to celebrate the victory over the Azerbaijanis in advance. Moreover, it was not without difficulty that the team managed to defeat the passing, it would seem, rival in the person of Slovan – the second game was held, as they say, on validol. So after the match in Bratislava, the Russian hastened to bring his players down to earth.

Photo: © IMAGO/MICHAL CHWIEDUK / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

After the match, Ferencváros posted on their social networks a video from the team’s locker room, which included the coach’s appeal to the players. The coach interrupted the players, who began to vigorously celebrate the victory, and called everyone to silence with a whistle. And then he gave his own – very restrained – assessment of the game against Slovan:

– I saw everything and I can only say two words: “not bad” (“not bad”). When it’s good, I say “good”. But it was “not bad,” the coach reasoned in broken English.

The footballers’ words Cherchesova caused a different reaction. The players who were next to the Russian listened to his speech without much enthusiasm, lowering their heads. One of the players tried to interrupt the coach’s monologue by repeating his words with a playful intonation, to which Salamych reacted sternly. The specialist, with a characteristic gesture, urged the players to calm down, and then, with a calm look, repeated two key words several times, letting the players understand: it’s too early to rejoice.

At this time, a tense silence reigned in the locker room. When Cherchesov finished his speech, the players applauded him, but displeasure was clearly visible on the faces of some. The situation was saved by the assistant coach, who emotionally turned to the team. After that, the players made a little more noise, but their celebration was again stopped by the Russian, this time explaining the essence of his first words:

We have shown that we are men. But now we have taken just one small step towards the Champions League,” said Cherchesov.