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Dmitry Mikhailenko started his professional football career in Dnipro. Here, in fact, he declared himself a player, which helped the midfielder to subsequently move to the Dynamo, where Mikhailenko won eleven trophies in seven years, being directly involved in the “golden” period of Kiev in the history of the championship of Independent Ukraine.
It turned out even more symbolic that after the end of his playing career, Mikhailenko joined the team that became his, Dnipro, where he initially worked with young footballers, and became known as a person who can perfectly find a common language with promising artists. When Miron Markevich stepped down as Dnipro’s head coach in the summer of 2016, saying he saw no further reason to continue working in this role, there was no question who would replace one of the most respected national coaches. In “Dnepr” they began to take a course towards a significant reduction of funding, and therefore of the confidence of their own youth. The promising Lunin, Vakulko, Balanyuk, Kochergin, Lunev, Cheberko, Kogut, Kozhushko, Kostyshin Jr. and others were transferred to the first team. And who, if not Mikhailenko, could find a common language with the talents of the Dnipro academy, be an authority for them and make them develop every day.
But the 2016/17 season at UPL was a real disaster for Dnipro and not at all because of Dmitry Mikhailenko’s lack of experience in independent coaching at the highest level. On the contrary, the young specialist showed that he has interesting insights on the development of football, and is trying to teach young people to really play, and not to torture themselves and their opponents on the field, but the public in the stands and on television screens. In 32 rounds, Dnipro won 8 wins, 13 draws and 11 losses. This would be enough to quietly maintain a residence permit in the elite, if the Dnieper did not pursue a series of punishments for not being willing to pay debts. As a result, Dnipro reached the end of the season with “-24” points in liabilities, which were not formed at all because of the players and the coaching staff. In fact, this was the end of the glorious history of the glorious club with more than a century of history …
But Mikhailenko did not abandon what he had started. He accepted the offer to lead the newly created Dnipro-1, which included some of his former Dnipro players, but overall the coach had to build an entirely new team. The tasks were simple: to ensure the return of the Dnipro club to the elite of Ukrainian football in two seasons. And Mikhailenko coped with this brilliantly, winning Group B in the Second League, and then for sure by taking gold at the end of the season in the First League. In addition, for two seasons in a row, Dnipro-1, representative of the lower leagues, reached the semi-final stage of the Ukrainian Cup, where he gave way to only two recognized greats of national football: Dynamo and Shakhtar.
During this period, Mikhailenko’s work on Dnipro-1 encountered extremely glowing reviews from the press and fans. Even fans of the real Dnipro, who did not accept the appearance in their city of a sports club with one in the name, understood that Mikhailenko joined this team solely with the desire to progress and develop local football. There could be no other motivation, because the young coach, after a good debut and Dnipro’s own collapse, could claim a much more prestigious option than going straight to the Second League. But Mikhailenko was unfazed and achieved success.
The return of Dnipro football to the map of Ukraine was perceived by many as the beginning of something new. Someone believed that Dnipro-1 in a season or two at UPL would grow to the level of a serious competitor for Shakhtar and Dynamo, but overall, the overwhelming majority of fans had no doubt that Dnipro could be among the elite in the season. premiere. get a ticket to the European cups, especially since the current level of competition in the Premier League is far from as serious as 7-8 years ago …
And the start in UPL-2019/20 was generally good. In the eighth round, Dnipro-1 was in the sixth row of the standings, but then, by the will of the calendar, Mikhailenko’s team had to play in a row against Dynamo and Shakhtar. Dnipro lost both matches with the same score 0: 2, after which they entered a rather prolonged crisis, having won in 9 matches only 2 wins with 2 draws and 4 losses at once, and two very painful – 1: 4 – by Zorya. at home and 0: 4 of “Kolos” on the road. Even a brilliant and sensational victory over the Dynamo (3: 1) in round 20 did not help Mikhailenko’s team get back into the top six …
However, Dnipro-1 had a chance to compete in Europe even in the bottom six. Mikhailenko’s men completed the mandatory schedule, finishing seventh in the regular part of the season, but in the European Cup playoffs they unexpectedly failed again where no one expected this from them. And again, Kolos acted as Dnipro’s offender, beating Mikhailenko’s team to pieces – 4: 1. Also, the rival team’s mentor, who actually took the European Cup ticket from Dnipro-1, is a Mikhailenko’s great friend from the joint performances of Dnipro Ruslan Kostyshin. These are the twists and turns of fate …
Obviously, the Dnipro-1 leadership, Mikhailenko, could not forgive the past “flight” of the European cups. This is understandable: in winter, Dnipro were almost the most active player in the domestic transfer market, having spent on signing five newcomers at once: Adamyuk, Svatka, Taylor, Di Franco and Tsurikov. Such costs say about one thing: they are waiting for Mikhailenko’s team to enter the Europa League. Therefore, when this did not happen, rumors about the possible dismissal of the coach began to spread in the press.
The most obvious contender to head Dnipro-1 in the offseason was Zorya’s coach, Viktor Skripnik. It was rumored that this coach had already agreed on everything with Dnipro CEO Andrey Rusol, and Zorya allegedly agreed to the arrival of Alexander Babich, who left Mariupol, on the training bridge, but in the end, at the last moment, the Final touch on this story was never delivered. For rather strange reasons, the bosses of Dnipro-1 and Zarya outmatched everything, leaving Mikhailenko and Skripnik in their previous positions.
As the start of UPL-2020/21 demonstrated, such false staff disturbances negatively affected both the Dnipro-1 trainer and his colleague from Zorya. And if idle speculation about the resignation still does not haunt Skripnik, then Mikhailenko felt similar pressure after the draw practically at home with tournament newcomer “Ingulets” (1: 1). The match, in which Dnipro created significantly more opponents (in terms of expected goals, a significant advantage in favor of Dnipro-1 – 2.24: 0.76) ended with a disorderly loss of points, and Mikhailenko spoke about the need for further transfers.
As a result, in the third round, Dnipro-1 managed to sign former Dnipro player Douglas, who had not had a full game practice since the beginning of the year, when he left Chapekoense, and returned Sergey Buletsu to the team again on loan, but The Mechanism , which suddenly began to fail significantly, Mikhailenko was unsuccessful, even despite the pause caused by holding international matches.
Not surprisingly, after a home loss to Mariupol (1: 2) in the third round, Mikhailenko announced his retirement. In fact, even before this game, the manager realized that his days with the team were numbered. The press spoke obscenely about the interest of the Dnipro-1 leadership to cooperate with former Karpaty coach Igor Jovichevich, and a little later about the alleged desire to appoint former Donetsk Metallurg mentor Sergei Tashuev as Mikhailenko’s successor.
Together with Mikhailenko, an important part of the history of this still very young club, but already so ambitious, he is leaving Dnipro-1. The fact is that this coach has been with the team since the first day, and with him it was a difficult road from the Second League to the team that everyone considers one of the indispensable contenders for the Europa League area. It would be very logical and beautiful if it were Mikhailenko, like, for example, Kostyshin in Kolos, who led the team to the European cups, but fate decreed otherwise.
The story of cooperation between Dnipro-1 and Dmitry Mikhailenko, which started so well, received a completely unpleasant ending. Now each side will go its own way. Dnipro will surely try to hold on to the European Cups for next season, and Mikhailenko … For some reason, it seems that this specialist must be out of football for some time to properly digest the accumulated clot of information, draw conclusions from the work done and Then a stronger and more competent specialist returns.
Once, footballer Dmitry Mikhailenko, who took the first serious steps in Dnipro, has grown to the level of Dynamo Kiev and the Ukrainian team. Who knows, maybe coach Dmitry Mikhailenko will one day conquer similar peaks, or even more serious ones, and then Dnipro-1 will still regret not showing a little more patience and not supporting the mentor at the right time …
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