The conversation followed Valery Masalitin, a former CSKA Moscow footballer, who commented on Khimki’s current situation with Spartak Gogniev at the helm after a crushing 0:6 defeat to Krasnodar. Masalitin weighed the idea that leadership changes could come, but he framed the issue in practical terms about the team’s future and the possible consequences for the remaining games of the season.
He suggested that if Spartak Gogniev were to leave Khimki, the club might bring in someone with a fresh perspective on how the squad should play. In his view, the team had stopped functioning well, and there were only a handful of fixtures left before the season concludes. Masalitin emphasized that if a new coach arrives, the club would need to consider whether to bring back a familiar name such as Yuri Yuran, though he doubted that would happen. His main point was that Gogniev’s exit would not automatically solve the underlying issues because the best path forward depends on the overall direction chosen by the club’s leadership.
Masalitin added that the decision about Gogniev’s future should ultimately come from the Khimki leadership. The club’s internal dynamics and the mood within the team were not fully visible to outsiders, making it difficult to assess the exact state of affairs. He cautioned that if the atmosphere around the camp is unhealthy, keeping the coach could prove impossible, while a positive climate might justify continuing with Gogniev. The focus, he argued, should be on how the team can regain form amid the mounting pressure rather than on the coach’s tenure alone.
At the end of the 21st round, Khimki sat in 15th place with 13 points. The team was under Spartak Gogniev, and under his leadership, Khimki had recorded only one win in 17 league matches. The season had begun with Sergey Yuran as the head coach. After a victory against Torpedo, Yuran was dismissed, and Nikolai Pisarev took over the reins. His tenure lasted only about a month before he was replaced by Gogniev, highlighting the club’s search for stability in a challenging campaign. The sequence of coaching changes painted a picture of a squad searching for its identity and a management team grappling with how to best harness the players’ potential and restore confidence on the field.