“I don’t understand why they fired”: the history of rare coaching resignations in the KHL and the fate of Tambiev with Zhamnova n

One of the most favorite and discussed topics in the cheerleading environment during the football or hockey championships is the coaching. Who will lose their position next, and which club will do it first? In such teams as football “Spartak” or hockey CSKA, where the army of fans is quite numerous and has a certain influence on the leadership, the coaching “scalpel” is required immediately after two or three defeats in a row. Most of the Russian clubs fans are less bloodthirsty, but they do not tolerate a long series of defeats for a long time and in the event of a serious gaming crisis, their favorites begin to shout at the top of their voice – “mentor resign”!

It is a completely different and egregious thing when the helmsman, whose team leads in their conference, is removed from management. I had to dig a little into my memory, but I remembered one similar case, about which Vladimir Krikunov, a meter of the domestic coaching workshop, told in an interview with our publication. Our honored ice specialist remembered the episode when he headed the “Ak Bars” and in the early autumn of 2000 he and his club came to Khabarovsk, then the head coach of “Amur” Sergey Borisov, the president of the Far Eastern team fired him right before the rollout of the game with Kazan after only one match held at the helm of the “tigers”. That one ended in a draw, by the way.

This story even before the “Khlov” era, but, as it turned out, it is far from the only one. A little digging into the Internet, managed to find literally identical to the current events in Magnitogorsk case, which occurred recently. In the 2012/2013 season, at the end of November, SKA helmsman Milos Rjiga was dismissed from his position after a strong-willed victory over Vityaz (4:3), which allowed the St. Petersburg club to lead the Western Conference of the KHL. The club’s official website explained the resignation as follows: “Based on the goal set for the team.” In hockey circles, it was interpreted by serious disagreements between the coach and the team leadership.

The Czech expert was clearly puzzled by what happened. When asked about it by journalists, he honestly admitted: “I don’t understand why I was fired.” According to him, the decision to resign was announced right in the locker room after the match with Vityaz Alexander Medvedev (President of SKA) and Alexei Kasatonov (General Manager of the club). They said they were unhappy with the team’s results. But how is it possible if the team is in first place in the West?, – said Rig.

The obvious reasons for the suspension of Andrei Razin in Magnitka lie not in the frictions of this domestic specialist with the leadership, here everything is more or less smooth, but with experienced players of the club - 35-year-old defender Yegor Yakovlev and 30-year-old striker Vladimir Tkachev. The first, a pupil of the local hockey school and a favorite of the local torsida, the mentor before the season wanted to take away the captain’s patch, but the players’ vote supported their leader. At the beginning of the regular season, the world champion of 2014 and the Olympic champion of 2018, Andrei Vladimirovich still hid in reserve, citing the weak form of the player, and appointing Vladislav Provolnev instead of Yakovlev.

On Tkachev, Razin tried to completely lower all the dogs for an unexpected home defeat from Barys (2: 5). At the post-match press conference, the 52-year-old coach made extremely sharp, emotional attacks on this hockey player: What greenhouse conditions is he in today? Do I have to put him on a plate with a blue fringe and blow the dust off him so he can play? Answer me! He's a professional hockey player. What the coach said, the player must perform without any whims and indulgences.” Such an emotional breakdown was a wake-up call for the club, undermining the authority of the mentor in the eyes of even his fans.

Many immediately recalled this specialist incorrect and defiant behavior at a press conference after the second match of the semifinal series of the Gagarin Cup-2026. In the spring of this year, Razin summoned a journalist to him with the words: “Can this smurf from Kazan come here to my table?” and put the young reporter next to him. During the conversation with him, the coach made other bright remarks. So he said, "Let me tell you you're a pedophile?" Can you imagine the stigma you'll have then? I've spent my life fighting people like you.” How seriously affected this behavior of Andrei Vladimirovich on the players of his team, but that series of “Magnetka” “white leopards” failed miserably, losing in three games in a row.

In order to exclude a repetition of that deplorable result and to avoid a serious fall down in this “regular” and extinguish the team conflict inside, “the leadership of the Metallurg hockey club decided to remove the head coach of the team Andrei Razin from work.” Vladimir Vorobyov has been appointed acting head coach.” This specialist immediately returned Yakovlev to the basis, Tkachev began to act more effectively, and Metallurg won three victories in a row - over the Admiral (3: 0), Salavat Yulaev (7: 1) and Torpedo (3: 2 OT). And while the former mentor of Magnitogorsk enjoys an unforeseen vacation and posts hilarious photos with a bare torso in his social networks, his already former team confidently leads the tournament peloton in the East, breaking away from the nearest pursuer by 7 points.

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Obviously, the microclimate in this Ural team has normalized and we are unlikely to see Razin on the coaching bridge of Metallurg in this regular championship. This means that this specialist became the second steering club of the KHL, dismissed this season, after Pavel Zubov from Lada. Who will be the third in this series? This is now actively gossip in fan hockey circles. In the West, the main contenders to leave the coaching bridge early are the mentors of two capital teams: Dynamo - Leonid Tambiev and Spartak Alexei Zhamnov. Popular and oldest ice squads of our country in late September-early October were in a deep game crisis and now suddenly are direct competitors for the last, eighth line in the playoffs.

Things are worse in the championship for the white and blue, whose series without victories before Sunday’s match against SKA (4: 3 OT) was six matches. Appointed in this off-season 56-year-old Latvian specialist Tambiev has not yet found the necessary settings for the successful game of his new team and in interviews after lost matches looks somewhat confused and devastated, finding very strange excuses for defeats. At the same time, according to the assurances of the bosses of the Dynamo club, the positions of this helmsman are very strong, and they do not think about changing the mentor in the near future. However, in the presence of HC Dynamo in the leading clip and Roman Rotenberg, who has already greatly missed the coaching work, he believes in such statements with great difficulty.

Perhaps the key in the coaching fate of Tambiev at the helm of this capital club will be the next two guest games against CSKA and Torpedo, which Dynamo this season has not yet won. They lost to the army twice - 3:4 and 2:5, to the Nizhny Novgorod once, on October 1, at home - 1:3.

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For the head coach of Spartak Zhamnov, the upcoming two games that the team will hold in the Far East against Amur and Admiral can also be of crucial importance. From September 20 to October 4, the red-and-whites also had a series of six defeats in a row that rolled them down the standings. But to the great luck of this team on October 7 and 9, they faced a two-game confrontation against Sochi, which did not surface this season, with which the Muscovites successfully coped. The Spartacists won 5-2 and 2-0, and these victories were a breath of fresh air for them, which should help restore the players’ faith in their own abilities.

So it is in fact or the red and white are still in crisis and should show matches in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. This trip is considered the most difficult and energy-consuming for teams from the European part of the country. The head coaches of the KHL clubs lost their posts after unsuccessful trips to the Far East and this is not such an egregious case as the resignation of the coach of the leading team in the championship.

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