Marked for David Sarbashev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Sevastopol go through and Spartak Nalchik go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A debut German Kulikov will not forget — 7.20
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.20 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Adam Cherkesov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 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.
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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Nalchik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Spartak Nalchik's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spartak Nalchik has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 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.
The dugout24 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 8.00 — 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Islam Tlupov had Spartak Nalchik level again within 3 minutes, and Angusht never got to play with a lead at all.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
A 0‑4 beating by Nart was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alan Khachirov 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Islam Pekov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Spartak Nalchik dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Eldar Luev 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.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Angusht next, and one man in the Spartak Nalchik dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Soslan Lysenko and Spartak Nalchik agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alan Khachirov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Legion made Spartak Nalchik work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Soslan Lysenko at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartak Nalchik.
Market3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Soslan Lysenko's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
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Squad
David Sarbashev falls out with a teammate over standards
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Arseny Avvakumov is in the works
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict