Marked for Dmitry Kuptsov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartak Tambov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Murad Omarov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marat Bogdaev 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Znamya Truda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartak Tambov and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Pavel Khodeev asks for a word with the manager
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Stavtsev, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zenit Penza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Kuptsov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mikhail Osinov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Bzikadze
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Tambov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 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 Tambov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniil Chernobay's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Marat Bogdaev asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Kuptsov signs something — a contract at Spartak Tambov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Bzikadze
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Tambov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartak Tambov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Murad Omarov 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 Tambov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
554% of the income goes out in wages at Spartak Tambov
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Pavel Khodeev
“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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marat Bogdaev 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Spartak Tambov are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Alexey Shulgin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Metallurg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivan Bzikadze damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Legion waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartak Tambov is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Spartak Tambov's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spartak Tambov has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Spartak Tambov close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Bondar', and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marat Bogdaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Late, late show earns Spartak Tambov a point
Minute 92, against Rotor 2, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Konyrev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Spartak Tambov the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Aug 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Spartak Tambov are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marat Bogdaev 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 22 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Maxim Sergeev did the work nobody counts — 6.90
10 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout31 Aug 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.69 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Spartak Tambov had the best player on the pitch.
Match29 Aug 2026
It needed Dmitry Kuptsov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Znamya Truda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Spartak Tambov have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Murad Omarov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Kuptsov, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Pyotr Zubov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Tambov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Shmarov 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Alexandr Shmarov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Pavel Khodeev
Nobody at Spartak Tambov is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.