"Spartak": a football club or a brothel tent?
It is known that Moscow Spartak is called the “people's team”. The point here is universal love - once. And another thing is that if we dive into history, the club did not belong to any department (like Dynamo - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, CSKA - the army, and so on). He was truly considered the "people's team." Thanks for that to the Starostin brothers, first of all.
However, there is something hidden in this nickname. Namely: the stories happening with Spartak seem to be possible only in Russia, because in essence they are completely crazy, absurd and in many ways ridiculous. If anyone should write about the “red-whites” (and Kassil, Olesha, Trifonov and many other classics were rooting for him), it would be best to write to Daniil Kharms. Because Spartak cannot be comprehended with normal logic. And as they joked in KVN: “Why do we need a boomerang when we have a rake?” Only they step on them in the Moscow club not twice, not three times, but many, many times.
As one musician, a fan, like me, of the “red-whites” told me: “Worriing about Spartak is like visiting a BDSM club. Only on the condition that you don’t like sadomasos. But you’re already there, you somehow ended up - so you endure it and think: when the hell will this end, and something pleasant will finally begin? A strange analogy, yes, but, in my opinion, a very good one.
In principle, all the best things for the “red-whites” happen not thanks to, but in spite of. Club legend Alenichev is appointed head coach. It’s just that as a helmsman, Dmitry achieved nothing, absolutely nothing, in football. Alenichev predictably fails - and the club is headed by Massimo Carrera, who joined the team quite recently and previously worked exclusively as an assistant to the Italian Conte. However, it is Carrera who leads - for the first time in 16 years! – “Spartak” to the championship. By the way, after this Massimo did not achieve anything serious in other clubs.
It would seem that there is “gold”, there is a team, there is a coach - develop success. But instead, the bosses of Spartak are hastily destroying the champion club. And the team again became a laughing stock. Moreover, the same scheme is used over and over again: players with character and spirit are kicked out, a dubious assistant with a dubious reputation is appointed to the role of head coach, and after failure, the least suitable candidate is selected. Or did someone seriously believe in Oleg Kononov?
Meanwhile, the last season with Domenico Tedesco was quite successful for Spartak. Not from the point of view of the game, no, but from the point of view of the mood, first of all. The team fought, the team often fought back. However, the Italian German left, allegedly for family reasons. What should management do next? Carefully develop the chosen line. But Spartak does not know, does not understand and does not accept systematicity. His bosses prefer the well-known principle “we will destroy the old world and the new one...” But here – stop. Because, as a rule, it is not possible to create something new.
As a result, before this season, “old acquaintance” Dmitry Popov was invited to replace the sports director, and the Portuguese Rui Vitoria was invited to replace the head coach. The last one is a good coach, very qualified. The only trouble is that it was obvious to everyone: the person’s mentality and character are not at all suitable for this “Spartak”. Success - more or less - in the Moscow club is achieved by characters like Carrera or Tedesco, scoundrels, not professors. Popov took the place of sports director, where people change at cosmic speed - before that, Shamil Gazizov and Thomas Zorn were present.
Of course, we must mention one more person, without whom it is impossible to imagine the current Spartak - this is Zarema Salikhov. A former fashion model who starred in Playboy, but what difference does it make when you become the companion of a dollar billionaire? She did and did, but to the misfortune of her fans, Zarema decided not only to live with Fedun, but also to manage Spartak. Let me remind you, in case anyone was flying to Venus, that it is Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun who is the main one for the “red-whites” - the owner and the most hated character among the fans.
With such baggage, Spartak entered the season when it celebrates its centenary. And what do we see as a result? In the first two rounds of the Russian Championship, the team looks extremely unconvincing. In the Champions League qualifying tournament, it loses without a chance to the Portuguese Benfica. The players are loose. Head coach Rui Vitoria looks desperate and hopeless. A complete fiasco!
But “Spartacus” wouldn’t be “Spartacus” if it weren’t for adding absurdity to this doom in the style of Kharms, edited by Stephen King. Feduna’s daughter – and this is not a joke! – hands over the game plan to the head coach, where he tells in detail what to do. Zarema continuously pours water on everyone involved in the “red-whites” in her Telegram channel and plays the most important game. In fact, she is the most important. They entrusted the “people's” club to an ex-model. Sports director Popov runs away from the club during the break of the match with Benfica because “he doesn’t want to be a jerk.” More shame? I'm sure it will.
However, it is impossible to imagine something like this happening anywhere else. Especially when we are talking about a once solid and respected club. It's impossible for something like this to happen at Manchester United. They don't trust the club to female companions. There is no tent or brothel there (chaos and disorder). But Leonid Fedun treats Moscow Spartak not as a football club, but as a toy, which he, however, was already tired of, and he passed it on to the people around him - let them, they say, play too. It is especially blasphemous that such mockery occurs on the centenary anniversary of the club. The “red-white” fans are simply mocked. They are humiliated. And here there are two options - both of them take place: either Fedun is pathologically incapable of managing the team and he doesn’t care about everything, or he was deliberately sent by competing structures to break up the team. What the enemies from the outside failed to do is being done right now from within.
Someone will say that Fedun’s departure will lead to bankruptcy - it doesn’t matter. It's better to be a beggar, but not to be disgraced. Now they just laugh at Spartak - as if they are poor. Once upon a time, the “red-whites” were feared, hated, and much more, but they never really laughed at the fools. Now the bottom of the nether hell has been reached.
And you will agree that this is also a sign of the times: to go from the Starostin brothers, standard people of conscience, inflexibility and honor, to Zarema Salikhova, a model, and Leonid Fedun, a nouveau riche. "The People's Team", isn't it?
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