From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market14 Sep 2026
Pablo Solari hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Gedson Fernandes takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gedson Fernandes provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Spartak Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tsuyoshi Watanabe 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Solari 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 targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tsuyoshi Watanabe has just signed for Spartak Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gedson Fernandes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Sep 2026
Mirlind Daku wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Spartak Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tsuyoshi Watanabe 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Spartak Moscow asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
A season-long audition: Feyenoord still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Spartak Moscow's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tomáš Chorý wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Spartak Moscow will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Moscow have done the hard part with Feyenoord, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Christopher Martins Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mirlind Daku commits to Spartak Moscow for another 5 years.
Transfer targets31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Spartak Moscow support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑0 against Dinamo Moscow, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Market24 Aug 2026
Manchester City pay $16.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Tomáš Chorý would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomáš Chorý is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $16.7M sale of Manfred Ugalde
He is going to Manchester City, the club has $16.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
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 Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Rostov for Ilja Pomazun was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Spartak Moscow support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Orkun Kökçü rejects the move
Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Besiktas, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
The longest week starts now for Spartak Moscow
Beaten 0‑2 by Lokomotiv Moscow in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Spartak Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Tomáš Chorý
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Moscow have done the hard part with Slavia Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 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 Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Solari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alexandr Maximenko, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from AIK for Esequiel Barco was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market10 Aug 2026
Marquinhos has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Spartak Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gedson Fernandes commits to Spartak Moscow for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gedson Fernandes 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marquinhos runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets10 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marquinhos, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Spartak Moscow, 1‑0 the final word against Rubin in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Samuel Adegbenro arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Samuel Adegbenro has, at Spartak Moscow, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
10 seasons and 310 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Spartak Moscow heard it as anything else.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Esequiel Barco and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gedson Fernandes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Spartak Moscow asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.