From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Market31 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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
69 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Otávio rejects the move
Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Qadisiyah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Pablo Solari 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Orenburg pay $150.0K, 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Spartak Moscow asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 2026
Losing 0‑1 is one thing; losing to Dinamo Moscow in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Gedson Fernandes has come up in conversations Spartak Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Spartaks for Daniil Zorin 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market24 Aug 2026
Atlético Madrid pay $1.0M, 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
Alexander Djiku and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Marquinhos
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Daniil Lukin has left for Strogino in a $30.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 1‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marquinhos runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Spartak Moscow and a story that will outlast his contract.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Tomáš Chorý rejects the move
Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Spartak Moscow asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Spartak Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniil Zorin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Daler Kuzyaev 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. Daler Kuzyaev is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
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
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manfred Ugalde and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Pablo Solari beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Esequiel Barco 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 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Georgy Rykov 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Rubin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Baltika will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Roman Zobnin: 10 seasons and counting
311 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Spartak Moscow know exactly what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Schöpf has just signed for Spartak Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
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
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A goal and an assist for Esequiel Barco — 7.94
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
Match1 Aug 2026
Mirlind Daku among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Mirlind Daku on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Spartak Moscow and Baltika.