Marked for Khusey Karkaev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Spartak Nalchik's wait for a win
6 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Stanislav Basyrov 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Isong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I watch every Spartak Nalchik game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kyzyltash runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match2 Jan 2027
It needed Ondřej Sprinz to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sevastopol, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Spartak Nalchik now.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Miroslav Skvortsov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Georgy Karkuzaev has moved up it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Khusey Karkaev
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Khusey Karkaev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Nalchik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at Spartak Nalchik: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Stanislav Basyrov 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
Stanislav Basyrov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Spartak Nalchik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ondřej Sprinz 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
224% 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Matyáš Bitta
“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
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Spartak Nalchik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Strogino; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aslanbek Kumykov 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Spartak Nalchik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Nalchik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ondřej Sprinz 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Alania have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Renat Balkizov named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Renat Balkizov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.