Marked for Ibrahim Al-Hamlan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartak Kostroma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Kirill Chursin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Spartak Kostroma is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Đorđe Pantelić 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Mironshoh Shonazarov 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
100% of the income goes out in wages at Spartak Kostroma
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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Something was said to Marko Bugarin and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Faruk Gogić gets it from the manager
“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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Marko Bugarin 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 Marko Bugarin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
Pressure builds in the Spartak Kostroma boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Amur Kalmykov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andrey Marjanov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Spartak Kostroma have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Đorđe Pantelić 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Spartak Kostroma told Denis Zhilmostnykh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikolay Tarasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Denis Bokov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Spartak Kostroma will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
The mood at Spartak Kostroma has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Amur Kalmykov 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Zhilmostnykh and Spartak Kostroma agree another 4 years.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Spartak Kostroma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Pantelić 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 targets6 Mar 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Spartak Kostroma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match4 Mar 2028
Akron left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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
Uneasy
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Spartak Kostroma's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spartak Kostroma has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Amur Kalmykov 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Đorđe Pantelić 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Minute 91, against KAMAZ, 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
102% of the income goes out in wages at Spartak Kostroma
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Spartak Kostroma are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match25 Dec 2027
A 1‑1 draw with KAMAZ leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout27 Dec 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 Burov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout27 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad25 Oct 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 Kostroma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Supranovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Bokov 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Denis Bokov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spartak Kostroma.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Marked 7.96. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartak Kostroma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Nikita Supranovich is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miroslav Burov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A debut Javid Sadygov will not forget — 7.39
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.39 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The match ball belongs to Terry Osei-Berkoe, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Volga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Amur Kalmykov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A performance of 9.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Supranovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
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 terraces23 Aug 2027
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.