DVSC extended the contract of its sporting director, Hayk Hovakimyan. Here’s a big interview, in which he summarizes the season and talks about several interesting topics.

You arrived at DVSC last summer. How do you feel at the club, in the city?

First of all, I want to congratulate all the fans of DVSC, it was a great season for all of us, thank you for your support throughout the year. From the very first day in Debrecen, I was surrounded by people who only helped and supported me. Due to them, I felt very comfortable in the city and I didn’t have any problems with adaptation. I have been to Hungary a lot of times before but anyway, it was a new country for me and every country’s football market has its own games and rules. Actually, I did scouting of the Hungarian championship in the 2017/18 season and for this reason, I had a lot of contacts and knowledge. However, it took some time to get to know the rules here. I had a secret motivation throughout the season and I think that now is the time when I can share it with you as well. It was my first week in Debrecen when I had a meeting with one of the agents, I don’t want to give any names, I’m sure he’s reading this interview now. I don’t have any bad intentions, moreover, I’m thankful and want to send my greetings to him. On that day, he asked me about our goals for the season, I told him that we will fight for the Eurocups, then he started to laugh sarcastically. Today, I can share that you gave me the biggest motivation, brother! Thank you! I like the city a lot, I already have my favorite spots where I usually go with my wife. However, my all time favourites are the Nagyerdei Stadium and Pallag. I feel very proud and happy to be a part of a club with 121 years of history, that’s an honour and a huge responsibility at the same time. The only obstacle for me is the Hungarian language but I decided to develop my language skills. 

What aspects of your work do you enjoy the most at DVSC and why?

I don’t want to sound trite but I enjoy every aspect of my job, though sometimes it can be very s tressful.The best part is the victory after a match, you can never have enough of this feeling and it’s the driving force and source of energy for me.

As sporting director, how satisfied are you with the club’s development?

Considering the season’s development, we should be content with the final result. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who had even slightly contributed to the result that we have today. I would say that we set high standards, now we have to concentrate all our forces to at least repeat this year’s success. In order to reach this, we need to continue our systematic work and improve the club in every aspect. We need to set rational targets and work hard.

At the end of the autumn season, Loki was standing at the 7^th place on the table, 4 points from the relegation zone and 5 points from the podium. What were the main goals for the winter preparation period?

First of all, the aim was to have a good camp and prepare the team for the 2^nd half of the championship. Due to the World Cup, this year’s winter camp was a bit unusual. We started on January 2 with glasses of champagne left from the New Year’s Eve in our hands. At the beginning, everyone was sceptical about the length of the camp (18 days) but now, looking back, I can surely say that it was a wise decision as every single day of the camp was worth it. The camp was really successful as the coaching staff had a chance to practice all their elaborated tactics. Those 18 days created a good chance for the team to stick together and the atmosphere was also nice.

Did you expect such a successful performance during the spring?

Who else believes in our team if not me? I admit, we were not in the most favourable position in the standings but great thanks to the team and the coaching staff for their efforts and unwavering devotion. We reached the podium! 

Although earlier the performance of the team was not best when they were playing far from Debrecen, in 2023 Loki hasn’t lost any away matches. How can you explain this progress?

The statistics of the away matches are very unusual but I would not look for any conspiracy in this fact. We always have a big support from our fans both at home and away. We always want to win, we step onto the pitch in order to win but when we play at home this desire doubles. The walls of home give more confidence but at the same time, I guess, players put additional pressure on themselves and not every time we succeed to win. Talking about the goals for the next season, I would like to see improvement in the statistics of our home matches as well.

What is your goal or dream that you strive to accomplish with DVSC?

To fully implement the vision that we had from the very beginning. Let’s say to put the locomotive on the track. To bring back the glory to the club. There are minimum 2 anthems that I want to hear in Nagyerdei Stadium. If we want these dreams to become reality, we should not limit ourselves to the success of last season, we should be united, goal-oriented and hardworking.  

The rationalization and development of the squad is constantly in progress. What’s the secret of establishing a successful squad?

Scouting, scouting, scouting. I am sorry, I didn’t give many interviews throughout the last season though I’m a very sociable person. Now, I would like to talk about a few things that surely interest our supporters. In case you have any questions, please write them down below and I will try to answer them in the next interview. I’m sure, everyone is curious on what bases we choose a player. Now, when I look back, I can be fair to tell that my first transfer window with Loki wasn’t very successful. Unfortunately, most of the newcomers, at that time, didn’t justify our expectations. It came as a cold shower for me, after which we made conclusions and I during the winter transfer period we were very productive. I want to point out that we launched a scouting department in February. I am in everyday contact with the head of our scouting department Bence Gulácsi. Currently, we have 4 regional scouts, and starting from this season, we will cover 8 different championships. I am very proud and excited about what we have already done and it is among our aims to enlarge our scouting network and cover as many countries as possible. What concerns the current transfer window, firstly, we asked the coach what are those positions that need strengthening and what type of players he wants to work with. Together with Bence Gulácsi, we filter all the players’ profiles that we receive from different agents, after which the scouts do detailed research about them and then we send the relevant names to the coach. Overall, signing a new player is very hard and it’s an ungrateful job. There are different factors that can affect the decision of the player and his adaptation, and we work hard on eliminating the risks.

The appointed coach at that time, Joao Janeiro, failed to meet the expectations as the team couldn’t secure a victory in the first six rounds. However, everything changed with the arrival of Srdjan Blagojevic. Based on what criteria was the Serbian coach chosen?

The results speak for themselves. Our coach has the second-highest PPM in the league. Together with his coaching staff, he managed to make big changes inside the team but the most important thing is that they managed to unite the team. I have never seen a team more solid and stable than ours, we have a very good connection with each other. I am very happy that we could extend the contracts of the coaching staff. I know that they enjoy being in Debrecen and they are motivated to reach higher peaks. I am very happy because of the results but even more glad for the fact that all of our players progressed a lot with Blagojevic.

The team had a great finish of the season as they won the bronze medal. They had a short break and now are already back on track. What is the schedule for the preparation, when and where will be the training camp? How many preparation games are planned?

SInce Monday, the team resumed the trainings in Pallag. The trainings are overloaded, we have testing too.  We are preparing for the Conference league and the season launch. The training camp is scheduled from between July 8-19 in Austria, during which we will have 4 preparation matches. Currently, two of them are confirmed: we will play against Wolfsberger AC on July 11 and on July 14 against LASK. The two other opponents are still under negotiation but all information will be available soon.

DVSC extended the contract of several key players, such as Megyeri, Milosevic and Lagator, so the team tries to keep its strengths. Will there be some newcomers?

Our main goal is to keep the main core of the team, we didn’t want to make any radical changes. We really appreciate the efforts of the guys who are in the team, that’s why their contract extension was of great importance to us. The experienced home-grown players had a great contribution to the success of the team. I have a huge respect for their hard work and devotion, they have a huge impact on the team and we should appreciate their efforts. Overall, I am against radical transfer changes, our goal is to strengthen some of the positions. We have already announced our first newcomer Botond Vajda. He was born in 2004 and it’s not a secret for anyone that there’s a massive hunt of 2003-born players in Hungary and next year they will be limiters. Unfortunately, we are also lacking 2003-borns in the Academy, so we have to make in-depth scouting of this age. Actually, I would like to use the opportunity to thank and congratulate once again the DVSC Football Academy for this year’s success: the second team finished the season with amazing performance, the U14, U15 and U16 teams became champions. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time in the history of our Academy that 3 youth teams became champions simultaneously. If we want to prosper and grow, we should be realistic. At this moment, we don’t have enough 2003-2004-born players in the Academy who can join and strengthen the first team. It’s a big issue and we should make research to understand why it happened. Meanwhile, there are players from the second team that get a chance to train with the first team. In my opinion, the connection between the first and the second team is at a high level and no player will remain unnoticed if he shows good performance. The transition from the third league to the first one is very hard as the difference is huge. For strategic reasons, it is significant for us to have a partner club in the second division. Thus, our talented young players will get an opportunity to play at a higher level and it won’t be hard for them to handle the transition. Preliminary, we discussed this topic with DEAC to come together and promote them to NBII. At this moment, everything is in the discussion stage and I hope that soon we can bring back to Debrecen the football pyramid (DVSC-NBI, DEAC-NBII, DVSC II-NBIII). What concerns the newcomers, I don’t know when this interview will be published, maybe you will already know a few names. I will repeat again, we are standing in front of a complex issue, we should strengthen and at least try to repeat the results of the last season.

What are the goals of the team in the international cup and the new season as well?

It is an enormous responsibility to represent Hungary in the Conference League. I was impatiently waiting for the draw. I don’t want to underestimate our possible opponents because every team on that list has passed a long way to be there. I can’t tell much about Arsenal Tivat but as I have already mentioned, no team reaches to Conference League by chance. Two years ago, they were promoted to the Premier League, right in the first season they became bronze medalists and reached the Cup final. If I know well, after the successful season they fired the head coach, which is very surprising but what is not surprising is that the leaders transferred to stronger clubs. We are studying our opponents and gathering information about them. I think that there will be an equal game but I give more preference to Alashkert, not because it represents my homeland but because they are a very good team.I can a lot about Alashkert because I had been working as the sporting director of an Armenian club for two years. I’m in a good relationship with their head coach and sporting director. Alashkert doesn’t have a very long history but it is one of the most stable Armenian clubs. During the last 8 years, they were champions 4 times, and 2 years ago they became the first Armenian club who reached the group stage in the Eurocups. If they defeat Arsenal Tivat, difficult matches will await us. Finally, I would like to thank the leadership of the club for their trust, the fans for their huge support and my players for the hard work and everyday efforts. Let’s put the Locomotive back on track! Hajrá, Loki!