European Leagues 
/ Jonathan Wilson / 21 April 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Valeri Karpin is responsible for appointing his own successor as manager of Spartak
"Karpin has resigned, but remains in charge of team affairs until a new manager is appointed. As general director, of course, he is in charge of that recruitment. He offered to resign that position as well, but the board refused even to consider it."
Once the superpower of Russian football, Spartak Moscow are currently struggling at the foot of the table and in the market for a new manager. Jonathan Wilson explains just what's going on over there...
Spartak Moscow is a club in danger of lurching into Newcastle or Tottenham territory. A vibrant young side, packed with gifted attacking players, there was a sense about them even before the season began that they would either be abysmal or brilliant; there was little scope for mediocrity. Given their coach, Valery Karpin, an oddly dreamy, almost ethereal presence, was also their director general, the chances of farce seemed greatly increased.
Karpin first took charge in 2009, replacing Michael Laudrup. Playing exciting, uplifting football, he led Spartak to second in the table, and it was impossible not to imagine what might have happened had they not suffered an indifferent start under the Dane. But last season, they never hit consistent form and finished only fourth. Still, progress in the Europa League and optimism about the future sugared the pill.
This season, though, began with a 4-0 defeat at Rostov, and has got worse since. Although Spartak saw off Ajax in the last 16 of the Europa League, they were thrashed 10-3 on aggregate in the quarter-final by Porto ([2.44] favourites to win the competition). Defeat at Anzhi on Sunday came as the final straw, leaving Spartak bottom of the Russian table with four points from five games.
Karpin has resigned, but remains in charge of team affairs until a new manager is appointed. As general director, of course, he is in charge of that recruitment. He offered to resign that position as well, but the board refused even to consider it.
To make matters even more confusing, the fans seemingly want Karpin to stay. "We think that in the current situation firing the manager is a thoughtless step," said a statement from Fratria, the biggest of the Spartak supporters associations. "At the moment there is no alternative to Valery Karpin as manager of Spartak. No one else could make 'our wizards with the ball' take their jobs professionally."
The likes of Claudio Ranieri and Louis van Gaal have been linked with the job, but the favourite at the moment is the former Dinamo Moscow coach Andrey Kobelev, something to which the fans are opposed to because of his links with one of Spartak's main rivals.
Karpin took charge of what he insists will be his final game in charge of Spartak on Wednesday, as they beat Krasnodar 2-1 in the Cup. Adding to the surreal air, the 40-year-old midfielder Andrei Tikhonov, who retired last year and has returned to the club as a coach, played for the first 53 minutes before leaving the field to a standing ovation. His final performance, against Real Madrid in September 2000, when the then-coach Oleg Romantsev insisted he was "finished" is widely perceived as the moment at which the great era of Spartak domination began to unravel. They won the league the following year, but never since.
Whether his return, even in a semi-symbolic capacity, can rekindle the spirit of old is debatable. The world of Russian football now is very different to that of the nineties, when Spartak won nine of the first ten Russian league titles. They were then the biggest club by some distance, a hangover from Soviet times when they were effectively Russia's representative in the Supreme League, and they seem still to be struggling to adjust to their new role.
Other clubs from the capital, notably CSKA, who beat Zenit in the Cup yesterday, now have similar resources, while the last five to six years have been marked by the rise of provincial sides such as Zenit St Petersburg and Rubin Kazan. For all the mockery of Anzhi's big spending on elderly Brazilians, the fact they can sign a player like Roberto Carlos indicated a depth of resources that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.
Like an old colonial power struggling to deal with the loss of empire, Spartak blunder on, unsure how to react to the upstarts around them, certain only that they should be doing better than they are. It is 10 years now since they last won a league title, a run that will almost certainly stretch one more year.
Spartak face fellow strugglers Spartak Nalchik on Sunday. They are [1.48] to win, with Nalchik [4.0].
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