Karpin to remain Spartak Moscow trainer

MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) - Valery Karpin, who took over as Spartak Moscow caretaker manager after the club dismissed Danish coach Michael Laudrup last week, is to remain in charge of the side.

The ex-Spartak, Real Sociedad, Valencia and Celta Vigo star is to combine the job with his position as general director of the most successful Russian club of the 1990s. He has no previous managerial experience.

"We are not looking for any candidates for the position of trainer," Karpin, 40, told Sport Express. "I will also remain general director."

Karpin made a winning start to his career as Spartak trainer, with the club beating Terek Grozny 2-0 at home at the weekend.

"I had the impression that Spartak were recognizable for the first time this year," the 40-year-old trainer told Sport Express after the game. "Even when we exchanged tops with our opponents you could still tell which team was ours."

Club owner Leonid Fedun told RIA Novosti on April 17 that, "Karpin will be in charge of Spartak as long as the club is winning."

Danish football legend Laudrup, 44, was fired by the club late on Wednesday after a 3-0 defeat at home to cross-town rivals Dynamo Moscow in the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup. The club said in a statement that he had been sacked over "unsatisfactory results."

He was the sixth coach in as many years to be dismissed by Spartak. When he took over last September, the side's fans were hopeful that the Dane could replicate the success of another foreign trainer, Zenit St. Petersburg's Dick Advocaat. However, Spartak struggled to find form toward the end of last season, and crashed out of the UEFA Cup at the group stages. Their forward line was particularly weakened by the sale of Roman Pavlyuchenko to Tottenham Hotspur just before Laudrup's arrival.

After Laudrup's dismissal, Russian bookmakers immediately made the former CSKA Moscow coach Valery Gazzayev favorite to take over at Spartak. However, many experts were skeptical that the ex-manager of Spartak's bitter rivals would be able to manage the Red and Whites.

"It's is absolutely clear that this would be absurd," football commentator Vasily Utkin told RIA Novosti. "Some things are just impossible."

In further developments, Spartak sporting director Dmitry Popov told the Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station that he did not rule out that Oleg Romanstev, 55, who led the club during their 1990s glory days, could make a return to the club, although he did not say in which role.

Under the erratic genius of Romanstev, who managed the club from 1989 to 2003, Spartak reached the semifinals of the Champions League, the UEFA Cup and the Cup Winners Cup. They also dominated the domestic league, winning the Russian title nine times. Romanstev left the club amid rumors of a drink problem, and later had brief, largely unsuccessful spells at Dynamo Moscow and Moscow Region club Saturn.

"All of our most recent success is connected with the name of Oleg Romanstev," Popov said. "His experience is so valuable for us, and I know that Valery Karpin is taking definite steps for that experience to be of benefit to Spartak once more. What role will Romanstev take on? I can't say right now, but the idea is certainly there."