Theo Bongonda 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marquinhos wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Spartak Moscow told Srđan Babić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Spartak Moscow 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
2‑1 against CSKA 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 33 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.72 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Theo Bongonda wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Theo Bongonda 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.
34 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I did not go to Krylya Sovetov to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartak Moscow and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Krasnodar moved on, Anton Zabolotny reports back to Spartak Moscow, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marquinhos. 3‑1 against Dinamo Makhachkala, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Esequiel Barco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.06. 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.
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Levi Garcia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Pablo Solari 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.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Akhmat had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Spartak Moscow did not stop to explain themselves.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.1M has been paid because Ahmed Al Menhali is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ahmed Al Menhali is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Zadar for Roman Zobnin 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.
Theo Bongonda 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Spartak Moscow and Sochi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Sochi made Spartak Moscow work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Levi Garcia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. 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.
2‑1 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Anton Zabolotny again, and this time the name on the line is Arsenal Tula. Spartak Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Nobody at Spartak Moscow 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Spartak Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Theo Bongonda 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.
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Srđan Babić 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Torpedo Moscow will make the call about Daniil Zorin this week. Spartak Moscow have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Pablo Solari wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Pablo Solari found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Rubin went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The chase for Dominik Oroz ended with $1.2M changing hands and Krylya Sovetov out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dominik Oroz is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christopher Martins Pereira and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Theo Bongonda 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marquinhos wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Spartak Moscow has been clear about where Theo Bongonda stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pablo Solari. 2‑1 against Rubin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
36 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“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.
“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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Spartak Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.