5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Martirena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Gastón Martirena and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Racing Club and Mitre in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A 1‑0 win over Banfield, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Pablo Solari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A season average of 7.35 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Di Cesare is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mateo Arias on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gastón Martirena and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
13 goals in 22 games at Envigado — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Racing Club updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Martín Barrios and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Aldosivi will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Racing Club were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Mirlind Daku takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirlind Daku provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Acevedo and Racing Club agree another 4 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Quiros is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Spartak Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $21.7M for Pablo Solari, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Racing Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Luis Chávez has come up in conversations Racing Club were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal that would have taken Ignacio Galván to Deportivo Riestra has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Racing Club with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Marcos Acuña and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokomotiva Zagreb had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Pablo Solari was one of the reasons people came, and $21.7M does not replace that by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Spartak Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $20.0M for Mirlind Daku, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Racing Club have gone to Spartak Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Mateo Aguiar, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Krasnodar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartak Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $20.0M sale of Mirlind Daku
He is going to Racing Club, the club has $20.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Spartak Moscow have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Dmitriev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Spartak Moscow asked and Krylya Sovetov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Veldin Hodža is in the works
The offer from Slavia Sofia for Roman Zobnin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Mirlind Daku again, and this time the name on the line is Racing Club. Spartak Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Alexandr Maximenko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Nobody at Spartak Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Dmitriev knocks on the manager's door
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Spartak Moscow had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Spartak Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 3 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jhon Córdoba
Nobody at Spartak Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Moscow, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Esequiel Barco’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 groups that do not mix, and 2 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Christopher Martins Pereira is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartak Moscow lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I watch every Spartak Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FK Csíkszereda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Dmitry Shopin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Spartak Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dmitry Shopin is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartak Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Spartak Moscow, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pablo Solari signs something — a contract at Spartak Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Daniil Zorin’s exile
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dmitry Shopin is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Esequiel Barco is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Samuel Adegbenro has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilja Ivarlak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandr Zimin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yaroslav Suslov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikita Protasov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Evgeny Pluzhnikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartak Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danil Prutsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pablo Solari signs something — a contract at Spartak Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Spartak Moscow that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
2‑3 against IK Sirius. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against IK Sirius; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Spartak Moscow know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexander Djiku and Spartak Moscow agree another 2 years.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Spartak Moscow know it.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
Samuel Adegbenro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Nizhniy Novgorod will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A brace, and Mirlind Daku takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirlind Daku provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Textilschik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartak Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Danil Prutsev, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Spartak Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shinnik keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Spartak Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Jhon Córdoba
Krasnodar have accepted the money. What Spartak Moscow do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ilja Pomazun has agreed terms with CSKA Moscow for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Add another name to the list: Emmen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roman Zobnin. The answer from Spartak Moscow has not changed — yet.
A season average of 7.28 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Adegbenro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Igor Dmitriev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gedson Fernandes was one of the reasons people came, and $16.9M does not replace that by itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Dinamo Makhachkala, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Austria Lustenau had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The phone has started ringing about Esequiel Barco again, and this time the name on the line is Benfica. Spartak Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mirlind Daku and Spartak Moscow agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Gedson Fernandes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vadim Tsygankov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadPablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The offer from Anderlecht for Gedson Fernandes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Pablo Solari decided nobody was going anywhere. Sochi had no time left to answer.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Spartak Moscow have had the benefit of it.
330 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.85, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mirlind Daku is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSrđan Babić is still being punished for one mistake
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Spartak Moscow and a story that will outlast his contract.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mirlind Daku wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Bykovskiy is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
0‑0 against Groningen, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Rubin will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Christopher Martins Pereira scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Esequiel Barco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Adegbenro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Spartak Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pablo Solari is on it.
7‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Spartak Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Krasnodar; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Christopher Martins Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Spartak Moscow and Isloch, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gedson Fernandes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Esequiel Barco is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Spartak Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Spartak Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Adegbenro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Victor Parada is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitry Aksyonov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutPablo Solari has become a man the manager trusts
2‑0 against Karpaty, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Gedson Fernandes was at the centre of the description.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 9.90. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartak Moscow.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Krylya Sovetov tried to reorganise, Spartak Moscow did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Losing 1‑3 is one thing; losing to CSKA Moscow in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Nail Umyarov delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nail Umyarov scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Solari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Dmitry Aksyonov to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Spartak Moscow supporters have already started telling it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The offer from Kuban Holding for Daniil Zhitnikov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Shabab, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
In brief
SquadWords at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Player ratingsMirlind Daku was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Krylya Sovetov for Daniil Denisov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thiago Galhardo is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Spartak Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The deal with Al-Shabab is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Solari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Igor Dmitriev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
3‑0, and Mirlind Daku took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Spartak Moscow tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Mirlind Daku takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirlind Daku provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Rubin for Ilja Pomazun was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Player ratingsEsequiel Barco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
2‑0 against Dinamo Moscow, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
He is going to Benfica, the club has $15.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mirlind Daku wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Benfica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartak Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Spartak Moscow asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Spartak Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Lokomotiv Moscow scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Spartak Moscow are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Baltika will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Esequiel Barco and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years.
Gedson Fernandes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.