Of my own reluctance

Alexander Starkov left Spartak

The board of directors of the Spartak football club accepted the resignation of head coach Alexander Starkov. The now ex-team coach made it clear to reporters on Sunday that he was going to submit his resignation of his own free will. Yesterday, Mr. Starkov had the opportunity to express this personally to the shareholders and management of the club and immediately found understanding. Thus, Spartak captain Dmitry Alenichev, who “exploded” the situation in the team with his scandalous interview, in which he actually accused Starkov of incompetence, achieved his goal. Footballer Alenichev, even though he was put up for transfer and has been training recently with the reserve team, still remains at the club, and head coach Starkov has been fired.

Alexander Starkov became the third Spartak coach to retire after Oleg Romantsev left the team three years ago. Before the Latvian coach, invited to Moscow in the summer of 2004, Andrei Chernyshov and the Italian Nevio Scala could not hold on to the post of head coach of the “red-whites”. But of these, only Starkov managed to win something with the team - the silver medals of the 2005 national championship became the last trophy since Oleg Romantsev won the Russian Cup with Spartak in 2003. Now, a different coach will prepare the team for the Champions League, in which Spartak won a place together with Starkov.

In the intervals between coaching appointments, the team was always prepared for matches by the club's sports director, Vladimir Fedotov, who can be considered almost the main long-liver in the club's management. Vladimir Fedotov has now been appointed acting head coach and, apparently, will continue in this capacity until the 9th round, after which there will be a two-month break in the Russian championship associated with the World Cup. During this period, a new head coach should appear at Spartak. So far there are two unofficial candidates - former goalkeeper of the “red and white” Stanislav Cherchesov, who now heads the eighth team of Austria “Tirol”, and Anatoly Byshovets, who works for short periods.

Andrey VDOVIN