Marked for Igors Ikaunieks
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Daniel Sappa 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Sep 2030
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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Daniel Sappa 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 Kostroma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Sep 2030
KAMAZ left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Giorgy Uridia
“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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
When it matters, Faruk Gogić plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Sep 2030
“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.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Nikolay Tarasov pops up at the right end — 7.50
7.50, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amur Kalmykov and Spartak Kostroma agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Daniel Sappa 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
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.
Match7 Sep 2030
A 2‑1 win over Chelyabinsk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Ninety minutes of Daniel Svintsov 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 Kostroma.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Crisis
Squad2 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amur Kalmykov and Spartak Kostroma agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Daniel Sappa 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 Kostroma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Sep 2030
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.
Match31 Aug 2030
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match31 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market2 Sep 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Spartak Kostroma know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Sep 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ivan Lyubimov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Aug 2030
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.
Match24 Aug 2030
Chaika left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces19 Aug 2030
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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ikaunieks
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Kostroma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Daniel Sappa 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 Kostroma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Aug 2030
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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgy Uridia, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Crisis
The terraces1 Jan 2029
Anger at Spartak Kostroma spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A one-man rearguard from Daniel Sappa
There were 6 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Spartak Kostroma are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Dec 2028
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Daniel Sappa 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Yahia Attiyat allah 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
0‑2 to Torpedo Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“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.