Position 2, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Pablo Solari was one of the reasons people came, and $18.1M does not replace that by itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aleksa Đurasović has just signed for Spartak Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer from Leeds United for Manfred Ugalde 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.
“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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Spartak Moscow are 2 in the table and the town has noticed
59 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
A 3‑2 win over Krylya Sovetov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratingsGedson Fernandes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marquinhos at his very best
25Edition
The Spartak Moscow Gazette
18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Mirlind Daku takes the afternoon — 9.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirlind Daku provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Wisla Krakow moved on, Vladislav Saus reports back to Spartak Moscow, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Marquinhos 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.
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.
Position 2, 55 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Lokomotiv Plovdiv for Danil Prutsev 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.
Manfred Ugalde 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniil Zhitnikov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
16 goals in 20 games at Panathinaikos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Spartak Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
SquadPablo Solari falls out with a teammate over standards
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Spartak Moscow have had the benefit of it.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Manfred Ugalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.00. 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 8.28 — 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Dec 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.
He is 23 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.05, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Christopher Martins Pereira is on it.
In brief
The dugoutDaler Kuzyaev knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutRoman Zobnin dropped after a run of poor form
Position 2, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Marquinhos 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miroslav Lukyanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Esequiel Barco is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Makar Chernyshov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Spartak Moscow dressing room was either.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Levi Garcia’s exile
Derby days make names, and Manfred Ugalde made his against Dinamo Moscow. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
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.
“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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Makar Chernyshov on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gedson Fernandes provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Manfred Ugalde 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.
7.90, 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Esequiel Barco 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
5 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 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Manfred Ugalde decided nobody was going anywhere. Krasnodar had no time left to answer.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergei Korsakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
“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.
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Manfred Ugalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.73. 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marquinhos 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.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Manfred Ugalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. 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.
A brace, and Mirlind Daku takes the afternoon — 9.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirlind Daku provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mirlind Daku. 3‑1 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Wooh 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Spartak Moscow has been clear about where Srđan Babić stands, which is more than many ever get.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Danil Silaev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then CSKA Moscow scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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.
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.
CSKA Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Dmitriev, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Zobnin 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
The offer from Uralets-TS for Daniil Zhitnikov 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.
Esequiel Barco 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Spartak Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartak Moscow.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Spartak Moscow are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Makar Chernyshov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Player ratingsPablo Solari beats them one at a time
The match ball belongs to Manfred Ugalde, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Spartak Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 6 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
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.
Akhmat will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Spartak Moscow and Akhmat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Srđan Babić
SquadWords at Spartak Moscow training over how hard people work
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.