Marked for Alexandr Rendakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aslanbek Kumykov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market1 Feb 2027
The shop window has Islam Pekov in it
Spartak Nalchik have let the market know Islam Pekov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Aslanbek Kumykov’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 Nalchik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Kirill Volkov 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Druzhba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Anoshin, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khakim Kadykoev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
5.46 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A mark of 5.51 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Market4 Jan 2027
The Islam Tlupov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Islam Tlupov signs something — a contract at Spartak Nalchik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“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 Nalchik can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Rendakov and Spartak Nalchik agree another 2 years.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
402% of the income goes out in wages at Spartak Nalchik
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Khakim Kadykoev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Rostov 2 will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 5.48, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Rendakov and Spartak Nalchik agree another 2 years.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 2‑0 win over Dinamo Makhachkala 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Magomed Piriev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Artem Anoshin’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spartak Nalchik.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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 Nalchik know it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Islam Tlupov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Islam Tlupov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 Nalchik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Nov 2026
Position 12, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
484% of the income goes out in wages at Spartak Nalchik
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Islam Pekov 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Liubomyr Kuzyk, and the manager let it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Match31 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Legion defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Islam Pekov in a row with a teammate
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Khakim Kadykoev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Artem Anoshin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kuban Holding, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 5.79 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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 Nalchik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.83 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Spartak Nalchik had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Nalchik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Soslan Lysenko 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
Angusht left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aslanbek Kumykov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Spartak Nalchik had the best player on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Spartak Nalchik, another week without a signature from Alexandr Rendakov.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A mark of 4.69 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.