Of the Dynamo players, who were not allowed to play abroad in time, and at the end of their career in the “white-blue” team, they were turned into something similar to a “suitcase without a handle” (it’s hard to carry, but it’s also a pity to quit), you can easily make up a couple of teams. Without digging deep, the names of Gusev, Shovkovsky, Khacheridi, Milevsky, Aliyev immediately appear in memory. Now Sidorchuk and Garmash have joined this long list.
So much has already been said about the specific attitude of the Dynamo management towards the prospects of its leading players that it would not be possible to add anything new even if they wanted to. I have no such desire. Just like, at the same time, right now there is no particular desire to say crooked words about the Surkises. I was not in the shoes of the president of a football club, so I don’t know how I would behave in their place.
Now I would like to talk a little about something else. The fact that many football players from the above list (and many who were not included in this register) were never able to fully realize their talent at Dynamo. And in this case, it is not necessary that all the criticism should be directed at the odious presidential brothers.
Next we will talk about Denis Garmash – at the moment, about the “last of the Mohicans”, who is clearly leaving the capital’s club not as well as he could have. As I should have.
I’ll admit right away: I am not an ardent supporter of this football player’s talent. However, I think I can give credit where credit is due. Therefore, I declare that if Denis realized anything of his potential in the team from the capital of Ukraine, it was, perhaps, half of it. The other half turned out to be unclaimed. And not only his fault. Quite the contrary.
***
Denis Garmash was taken to Dynamo as a 17-year-old boy. They took him as an attack player. And he progressed very quickly both in the Dynamo youth teams and in the Ukrainian national teams of the corresponding ages.
Here, no matter how hard you want, you won’t be able to ignore his exploits at the Junior Euro (among 19-year-olds), where he became the tournament’s top scorer, one of its best players and, most importantly, European champion.
Even then, Surkis had offers from serious clubs regarding Garmash. But they didn’t want to let Denis go for any money, reasonably believing that such a nugget could truly reveal itself in Kyiv, after which it could be sold for big money.
The idea is very correct, but its implementation is rubbish. It just so happened that Garmash, from the moment of his “registration” in the first Dynamo team (2009), could not get to “his” coach. I couldn’t fully open up and realize my richest potential.
Garmash was a playmaker, a point guard, a player focused exclusively on attack only at the dawn of his “adult” career. Then he was repurposed as a defensive player. This transformation began during the tenure of Yuri Semin.
YurPalych, despite his “gastronomic” appearance and essence, was a good coach at that time. And it may well be that he could mold Garmash into a “Ukrainian Pirlo.” But for various reasons he did not stay in Kyiv.
Then at the head of Dynamo there were either downed pilots or temporary workers. They had no time to bother and babysit a talented but problematic football player. Therefore, Garmash was left to himself, and Blokhin’s comrades were left to themselves.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Denis Garmash vs Sergio Aguero
Sergey Rebrov and Denis Garmash are a separate topic. I have no doubt at all about Sergei Stanislavovich’s profile characteristics, but I note that things didn’t work out with Denis. It happens.
Later, the coach recalled why it didn’t work out. According to Rebrov, Garmash, Khacheridi and Rybalka are like three heroes who were indifferent to everything. Now, if “they were separate,” there would be a completely different conversation.
But there was no other conversation. Rebrov left, Khatskevich and Mikhailichenko came. And I had to forget about Garmash’s game progress.
As the same Rebrov noted not so long ago about Garmash, “he played only with his heart, and it had to be subordinated to some kind of tactics.”
***
Subdue…I interpret this word as teaching. In the end, none of the Dynamo coaches managed to teach, convey, and curb Garmash.
His short-term exile in the wilds of Turkish football also ended unsuccessfully. Wrong club, wrong league, wrong age.
It is paradoxical that Garmash found his second – and last – Dynamo youth, speaking under the leadership of Mircea Lucescu.
The experienced Romanian used Denis not only in the center of the field, but also at the forefront of the attack. And as a forward, Garmash turned out to be many times more useful than Besedin and company.
But, again, it was not possible to completely restart my career. And Garmash is not the same anymore (it’s over thirty), and Lucescu is not the same all the more (I’m talking about age again).
Denis continued to “play with his heart” until the end at Dynamo. But each time it was more and more difficult to do this, because he was noticeably dissonant with the team, which just didn’t have a heart.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Denis Garmash
Therefore, his departure “by mutual consent of the parties” is a correct and logical decision in the circumstances. And the team already needs a generational change.
But from the point of view of a career as such, the decision is clearly belated. Something like Milevsky’s late departure.
Both Artem and Denis are unequivocal Dynamo “infante terribles”. Especially the first one, who, rather through his own fault, ruined his career. Garmash is a character of a slightly different order, of a different test. I have no doubt that it was definitely possible to straighten the brains there if they had taken up this procedure in a timely manner.
But someone was not up to it, someone did not succeed, and someone did not possess the gift of a mentor.
As a result, Garmash so quietly, unconvincingly, and only to liquid applause, finishes in his native club, and one iota not reaching the unspoken status of “Ukrainian Pirlo”.
Although he clearly deserved more.