Marked for Maxim Sergeev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Tambov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match16 Jan 2027
After 11 games, Spartak Tambov finally taste it again
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Dinamo St Petersburg; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad18 Jan 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 Tambov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Mikhail Osinov
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Spartak Tambov will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Spartak Tambov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marat Bogdaev 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Petrov, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Prokhor Guskov to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Tambov, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match26 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 368% of the Spartak Tambov income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Roman Petrov did the work nobody counts — 6.84
12 combined actions and 6.84. 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.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alexandr Shmarov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Spartak Tambov.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ilja Vostrikov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Oct 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 Tambov, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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
508% 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Metallurg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrey Bondar'
“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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Spartak Tambov close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 4 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Maxim Sergeev pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match12 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Spartak Tambov do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Gurchenko has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Rotor 2 had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 Tambov, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market14 Sep 2026
Luki-Energiya are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Spartak Tambov will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Out, 1‑1 to Dinamo Kirov, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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 Tambov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.57 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maxim Sergeev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Tambov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marat Bogdaev 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Marat Bogdaev
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.
Player ratings24 Aug 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
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Angusht waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartak Tambov is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ural is saying, and nobody at Spartak Tambov is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The terraces17 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Airat Khabibulin did the work nobody counts — 6.78
11 combined actions and 6.78. 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Vitaly Bondarev is in the works
Spartak Tambov have made the call to Ural. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.29, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Prokhor Guskov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.