The head coach on the conclusion of the season, the Russian language and plans for the Blue-White-Sky Blues in the upcoming months, as the club website informs.  

— Simple question: what are your conclusions from the season? 
— When the season just started, we had one goal — to hold on to win the championship. We were close to it last year, and now everyone understood that we were required to reach that kind of success. The season on the whole turned out pretty well. In the beginning, you remember, we set the record for the amount of wins, then — for the amount of matches without a loss, and all of this gave us confidence. Especially keeping in mind those difficulties that we met with then — I have in mind the matches without viewers and the fan sector. And between these events we were playing in the Champions League. 

I think that our best two moments were at the beginning of the season and during the stretch after the winter training camps, March and April — right at that moment when we were successful in the games against our strongest opponents. December finished with a win over «Krasnodar», March opened with matches against «Dynamo» and CSKA, which I think really had a lot to do with our victory. It’s understood that the championship isn’t determined only by these matches, but also by games with more modest teams and some tough away matches as well. There we also earned points too. Sure in some moments we weren’t able to win at «Petrovsky», but at those moments the team was dealing with some fatigue, mistakes and some disqualifications, or something else too. But in any case we were able to reach our goal, and I am really very happy. The players had a fantastic season, and really the only negative moment was that we were close to the semifinals of the Europa League, but played «Sevilla» to a tie. 

All of this doesn’t change our goal for next season — we want to win the Russian Premier League, we want to have success in the Champions League, to make it to the quarterfinals at a minimum, and so we should become better and stronger. I think that this year was a good start for the players that came to us in the summer — Javí Garcia and Garay. But they aren’t the only ones who deserve compliments — Lodygin, Smolnikov, Hulk, Danny all had incredible seasons and so did Witsel from the point of view from the kind of the freedom that he created on the pitch. Shatov had a breakout year — he really improved. And along with these guys were always players that supported them, but did not play as much. But they were very important, they were always ready to go onto the pitch, they knew that we were counting on them. I think that everybody valued Ryazantsev, Tymoshchuk and Rodic’s play that really helped us against «Sevilla». 

No less important is that we were able to avoid serious injuries for the duration of the season, with two exceptions. I have in mind the injuries to Fayzulin and Lombaerts, which didn’t allow them to play in a significant part of the second half of the season. But on the whole we were the second lowest team in the Champions League in terms of injuries sustained, and this is an incredible result for our medics. And that means that our methods of work at practice have allowed us to avoid problems, yet still maintain good form. 

So I can only thank those who worked for this victory — from the trainers to the doctors to the administrators, those who directed every day activities. Evgeny, the manager of the team, did a lot of not so simple work. I want to thank the leadership of the club for their support — Maksim Mitrofanov, Alexander Dyukov and Mr. Miller. 

So this was a good season, we are very happy. Everybody played incredibly well and we reached our goal, were much better than our opponents, earned the championship title and the long-awaited star. 

— What was your day and night like when we won? 
— We immediately got together with the coaches in so far as I was travelling to Portugal the next day, and celebrated a little. We generally do eat dinner together so it was just one more meal together with the whole staff. I think that the celebration is going to continue up to the beginning of next season and new feelings are still going to come. When you think about how everything started, your head starts to spin with all of the moments — the victory over CSKA on the road, the home matches with «Dynamo» and «Benfica» and to a certain extent against «Sevilla» at home as well, the 8:1 win over «Torpedo». Remembering these moments gives you a pretty nice feeling. 

— Was it worth celebrating your victory in the Russian Premier League at that dinner with at least one shot of vodka? 
— Oh no, before that we already had had a vodka-full dinner. I think when we beat «Amkar» or «Ufa», I don’t remember exactly. Semak and Simutenkov invited us to a special restaurant and it ended up with us deciding to to try and repeat that experience. 

— Who sent you the most unexpected text message after the win? 
— There were a lot of congratulations. Players that I worked with at «Tottenham», «Chelsea», «Porto», presidents of clubs all sent messages. 

— And Abramovich? 
— Well no, I didn’t correspond with Abramovich even when I was at «Chelsea». On the whole, there were a lot of congratulations. From friends and family — those who shared this  burden. And these of course were the most important ones.  

— If you were to compare the championship in the not so large Portugal to the win in the Premier League of massive Russia, which one is cooler? 
— I think that it’s a lot harder to win in Russia. 5-6 teams are fighting for the title: Muscovites, «Krasnodar», us — all had a real claim to success. There are those who consistently battle for eurocups and medals — those like «Rubin». There are a lot of teams in the Premier League who are very well organised, those led by strong coaches and all of this makes our opponents quite difficult. So it’s especially nice that we became the best. And we were the best throughout the whole season, breaking ahead of «Dynamo», CSKA, «Krasnodar», respectively, all of whom were chasing after us. We kept our level high. 

— This year you’ve really dealt with what you believe are some of the problems in the Russian Premier League. What did you receive the most pleasure out of this year? 
—The nicest thing is that we won. When you work on a team, that’s a pleasure and that’s what’s important. We played more than a few good games, overcame a lot of difficulties. I already spoke about the matches with «Benfica», CSKA, «Dynamo» and «Krasnodar». All of these matches gave us something to enjoy, they were some special moments. 

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— Is the match with «Lokomotiv» going to be a rehearsal for the Supercup or not really? 
— I don’t think so. It seems to me that there are going to be some changes to both of the teams before the Supercup. So this definitely won’t be any kind of rehearsal. We are champions and «Lokomotiv» received their own Cup and place in the Europa League, they already aren’t going to go any higher. So it’s just going to be a tough match, which we will try to win and give as a present to our fans. 

— There are already two variants — the Supercup will either be in July or in December. Do you have a preference? 
— It seems to me that this match shouldn’t happen too early. Because the Premier League already starts early and the players after the end of the season are heading to their national teams, they are going to give out a lot there and then already in July we will again begin the season. Our schedule isn’t that simple. I think that there is a way to find some kind of variants so that in the second half of the season you are playing not only on the weekends but during the week too. On the whole, if I have to pick one of these two, I would say December. 

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— The team has a vacation starting on May 30th. What’s going to happen after that? 
— On June 20th we are going to return to training. Not everyone — the players who will be with their national teams and who’s going to the Copa América are going to receive some additional time to relax. Until the first of July we are going to be working in St. Petersburg and then we will head to Austria. We don’t need a lot of preparation because the pause isn’t going to be very long, so 2-3 weeks will be enough ahead of the game for the Supercup and then another four before the Premier League starts again. 

— Do you already know who your opponents in the friendlies will be? Are you going to play in «Petrovsky» like last year?  
—Yes we have some dates in mind that we would like to play at «Petrovsky». It’s still not clear who our opponents will be yet, but in Austria there’s a good chance that we will play with «Sturm»  from Graz and «Ludogorets».  

— Is the system the same — from match to match the opponents will be stronger and stronger? 
— Yes, we are trying to make that happen. But when preparations start so early, the chances of meeting with some of the top clubs during training camp are a lot less. 

— Is the fact that «Zenit» will begin  the Champions League in the first bucket and immediately in the group stage a big plus? 
— I think so, being in the first bucket is really important but the absence of any qualifying rounds doesn’t make a big difference: in any case we are starting pretty early. 

— Do you have an idea of how the team is going to look next season? 
— Yes, but for the time being I don’t want to talk about it. 

— Then tell us about your first whole season in St. Petersburg. How do you like the city a year later? 
— It’s just great! I didn’t have any problems adapting to it or anything like that, our training ground is excellent, from the point of view of city life, everything is great. The culture, sports, social life — all of it is here. My friend Slava, our photographer, has invited us to go motorcycling a couple of time. Even a year ago, right after I came here, I immediately fell for the city. There’s a lot of positive energy, a lot of wonderful people, always something to do — concerts, SKA, basketball. 

— Did your Russian vocabulary enrich itself this year? 
— I added a little to it, but I still can’t really put enough words together for a sentence yet. If I had started to take lessons a year ago, I would already be speaking, but I am always busy, first and foremost in matters for the team and there just hasn’t been time for anything else yet. So I know some words or phrases, but I don’t remember much and I still can’t hold a conversation. 

— You’ve got your vacation ahead. As a young father, how are you going to spend it? 
— I’m just going to go to Porto, I don’t have any travels planned this time. I’m just going to relax at home with my family and children.