Ukrainian revolt in Girona's dressing room

GironaGirona has a huge mess in the locker room. “Tsygankov was fine and called up, but he refused to change. That’s all I can say,” admitted Quique Álvarez minutes after the draw against Leganés. Added to the already known situation of the winger, who made it very clear at the beginning of summer that he did not want to play in the Second Division and went directly to the stands, are the rumors of Vladyslav Vanat’s resignation, who was indeed on the bench, to participate in the second half. The club, when consulted by ARA, denies that the forward rejected it and says that Tsygankov's situation will be managed internally. The mess is a big one.

You don't have to look far to find a precedent fueled by Girona itself last season. It's about the goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, who didn't want to play because he felt deceived and wanted to leave Montilivi. The Croatian, who needed continuity to compete in the World Cup, hinted that he had been promised a starting position that never materialized. And, since he had already played a match with Fenerbahçe before arriving at Girona, if he had played even a single second, he would not have been able to play for a third team, as the regulations prevent it. There was no punishment for the goalkeeper, who lowered his level in training, which caused more than one discomfort, and he ended up packing his bags in winter to be a starter for Croatia in the summer.

Livakovic's precedent

The most radical case of all is that of Tsygankov, who has not played a single minute during pre-season because he does not want to wear the white-and-red shirt for another minute. Hours before the league debut, with the players arriving at the stadium, Quique Álvarez, who was making his debut on the bench, asked him to change like the rest of the summoned and available teammates. The Ukrainian replied that he did not intend to do so and left the dressing room to follow the match from the box, where he was seen to be very focused on his phone. When the scoreboard showed him, he received a tremendous boo. The coach denounced his attitude at the end of the match and some of his still teammates were considerably annoyed by the decision, which they did not receive well at all.

Tsygankov's entourage already warned at the beginning of June that the footballer wanted to change his environment. He did so by leaking a letter that the player had supposedly sent to the entity, in which he stated that "my sporting future is difficultly compatible with the club's project." He also added that he would facilitate finding the best possible agreement for all parties and that, whatever happened, he would not rebel. Seen his behavior, he was lying.

The player has had a standoff with the entity and is trying to force a departure at any price, but it is not easy. Throughout the summer he has been linked with many teams, including Espanyol, Ajax, Valencia or Celta. Some have started conversations at Montilivi, like Celta, but between Girona's demands, which asks for a figure that could range between 10 and 15 million (50% will be for Dynamo Kyiv) and Tsygankov's pretensions, who has a very high salary, there has been no understanding.

Messages in the early morning and a spat

The newspaper As goes further and publishes that the Ukrainian's discomfort with Girona is due to the fact that the club has reached agreements with Turkey's Trabzonspor or New York City without the player's permission, who would only want to continue in Spain or go to England. The same information indicates that he is hurt because some of the clauses in his contract have not been fulfilled; he assures that he was offended to receive the notification of the call-up at 12 at night the previous day, and that when the match ended, Tsygankov and a member of the technical staff had a spat.

The other prominent name of the night, Vladyslav Vanat, on the other hand, has acted normally during the summer. In fact, the forward has been the top scorer in pre-season and the club's intention is none other than to make him one of their standard-bearers in the fight for promotion back to the First Division. Until now, Vanat had not shown signs of a possible departure. But, even though he warmed up with the score against them, several reports indicated that he would have refused to play.

Girona denies this with complete certainty and confirms that, although it seemed that something had happened, it would only be a misunderstanding, without giving further details. During Monday's training session at the Ciutat Esportiva, Vanat and the club have clarified the situation and there is no case.

What is obvious is that Tsygankov committed an act of indiscipline. And also that it is better for the senior officials of the entity to start taking measures and speeding up departures, before more time bombs explode.